Verloren
by Li the Twilight Knight
Summary: It was probably the biggest mistake Light had ever made, and he didn't realize until it was too late. Is facing death itself worth it to correct what he's done wrong? Canon AU, LightxL
1. Verloren

**Verloren**

This… relationship… Light didn't even know how it had begun. Somehow, L had expressed something that could only be labeled an _infatuation_, with him. It had been strange, and unexpected, but Light had seen the advantages of it immediately. After all, an L who was in love with him, no matter how weird it seemed, was an L that was less likely to send him to the execution chamber. The detective was human, after all, despite his android-like behavior sometimes. Light had nurtured the fledgling relationship, hoping that eventually L would trust him enough to slip and reveal his name. There could be no better plan. Even the normally distant L wouldn't be able to send his own lover to be executed.

Not that they had gone _that_ far. L was too new to relationships in general, and there were lines that Light had drawn for himself. Those were becoming even more important recently, as the unexpected desire to save L became more prevalent in his thoughts. Yes, if he could have his utopia, with L standing by his side as his white knight, everything would truly be perfect. L was a brilliant mind, and the world didn't deserve to be deprived of him. The only problem was that L would never agree with Kira's philosophy, and there was nothing Light could do that would convince him.

The only kink in his plan had been Misa. The blonde girl had walked in at an inopportune moment, and things had only gotten worse from there.

xxx

_Light's hands settled on slim hips covered in too-big jeans, tugging the detective closer as L willingly parted his lips beneath Light's mouth. His hands tangled in elegant auburn strands, keeping Light near him, maybe even now calculating percentages…_

xxx

Misa had screamed, running off, and no amount of coaxing had been able to make her listen. She committed suicide that night, tricking Rem into leaving her alone, destroyed by the sight of her "boyfriend" making out with "that pervert". While it was a tragedy, Light was the most worried, but for a different reason than everyone thought. Rem, thankfully unable to kill him due to his being bound to Ryuk by the Death Note, had sworn that she would find some way to get revenge on him for Misa's death. She didn't care to hear Light's protests that it wasn't his fault. Light couldn't help but shudder as he considered a Shinigami's revenge. What horrors could Rem come up with for her least favorite human ever?

She couldn't kill him; that was all he knew. But as a Shinigami she had the potential to make life extremely difficult for him. L and the task force could see her, after all. Ryuk and Rem had switched notebooks again, so that Rem could be the one to return to the Shinigami Realm, but that didn't stop Rem from returning and spilling valuable secrets to the detectives.

Speaking of detectives…

L turned on his swivel chair, glancing up from the data he was working on for a brief moment. "Light-kun?"

"Yes, Ryuuzaki?" Light asked, wondering what the other wanted.

"Are you all right? You seem to be spacing out abnormally." L said, seemingly concerned. "I know that what happened with Misa-san was a shock… And she was your girlfriend for a while…"

Light shook his head. "I'm okay. It's just a lot to think about all at once. That, the case, us…" That's right. Play the victim. Lure L in with a show of weakness.

L nodded. "I understand, Light-kun." He turned to say something to Mogi, and Light rolled his eyes. L might be the greatest detective in the world, but his people skills were severely lacking. Else, he would have noticed that Light was faking _everything_ by now.

xXx

At the end of the day, after the team had gone home, Light walked over and wrapped his arms around L from behind. "Let's go to sleep, Ryuuzaki. It's been a stressful week." This time last week, they had been mercifully oblivious to what was happening three floors above them on Misa's floor. It had been Watari who found her later, when he went to check on her as he always did before going to bed.

Ryuuzaki glanced at him, then nodded silently, putting the computer on standby and following Light upstairs. They still shared a room, partly because of the situation with their tentative "relationship", and partly because Light was simply too lazy to move _all_ of his things to a different room. L wasn't going to complain, for various reasons, not the least of which being that he enjoyed Light's company. Another, of course, was that despite freeing the auburn-haired young man, he still suspected him as Kira.

Light climbed into bed, and L curled up beside him, just barely touching his shoulder, like he had been doing for even longer than when their relationship started. He found that there was something about having Light around… It made it easier to sleep.

"Hey, Ryuuzaki?" Light asked, through the darkness. L hummed to show that he was listening, and Light continued, "You want this relationship with me, and you trust me enough to sleep beside me without handcuffs… How is it that you can still believe that I'm Kira?" If he would just rescind his suspicions, Light would be able to spare his life!

…Again with strange thoughts like that. He wanted L dead, out of the way, gone forever!

L didn't say anything for a long moment, then replied, "But I don't _want_ you to be Kira, Light-kun. There's a difference." He hesitated, then said, "When I do sleep, I have terrible nightmares. You keep the nightmares away. I can sleep without becoming lost."

Light turned on his side to look at his roommate and pretend boyfriend. "Ryuu…" He was surprised at the amount of humanity L was showing. He leaned forward and kissed L gently, just a small peck on the lips. L smiled faintly, and said softly, "_Ohne sie, ich bin verloren._"

It was something European, probably German if Light was guessing correctly from the sound, but he had no idea what it meant. L seemed to realize this, and simply scooted closer, tucking his head beneath Light's chin. "Let's go to sleep."

Light hesitated, then wrapped his arms around the skinny detective. It was all to get his name… All to get his name… L's humanity didn't matter to him. So why did he feel like he wanted to be there to keep L's nightmares at bay?

xXx

Somewhere in the Shinigami Realm, the Shinigami King was holding a meeting with some of the higher-ranked Shinigami. Their world, obviously, was falling farther and farther into ruin. But more pressing than that was the slow deterioration of the Labyrinth of Souls, where the Trial was held. Without it, there would be no new Shinigami. And if it did collapse entirely, Mu and the Shinigami Realm would follow much faster.

Rem listened quietly as the others discussed the problem. It was Jastin who finally spoke up with the obvious answer.

"How long has it been since we have given a soul to the Labyrinth?" he asked. "How long since we last used the BWS seal?" BWS stood for "body without soul", a special seal that could be used on the Death Note, to give the name written a different purpose. "If we give the Labyrinth a new soul, it could slow the deterioration until we discover a true solution, or halt the destruction altogether."

Rem had been half-listening as she mused over the time she had spent watching Light Yagami over the past week. She had finally seen it, what Misa had seen that night.

And she knew what she could do, as revenge on that wicked human.

"My King…" she said. "Please allow me to be the one to retrieve the soul for the Labyrinth. I know where to find one that will be perfect."

The King turned interested eyes upon her, and nodded solemnly. "Very well, then, Rem. Go, and do not fail us."

Rem nodded, spreading her wings and flying off to one of the windows that looked down on the human world. She would find the opportune moment to carry out her plan, and then…

Misa would be avenged.

The Trial, in truth, didn't really bother her. She did not remember if she had ever gone through it herself, after all. It was a terrible thing, which pits the trial-taker against all manner of nightmares and illusions, testing their will and their strength. In the end, their decisions throughout the trial determined where they would end up. Heaven, for the virtuous; Hell, for the wicked; the Shinigami Realm, if a certain route was taken; or back in Mu, if the trial let them out after failure.

Shinigami, most commonly, were Death Note users who underwent the trial. Normal humans, passing through Mu and through the Trial, generally went to Heaven or Hell. What Ryuk had told Light Yagami was only partially correct. All humans started in Mu when they died, but the lucky ones made it to Heaven eventually. Becoming a Shinigami, however, was different. The longer you remained in the Realm, the more your body changed to resemble your inner self and personality. You gradually lost all human memory as well. Shinigami knew that they were once human, but they had no concept of what it felt like or how their lives had been. It was simply another useless fact to store away, like the Death Note rules. None even knew their previous names.

It was a fate that Rem wished on no one, to essentially be bored for an eternity, without even human memories to ease the tedium. No one, that is, except for the one the humans called Kira. He deserved every bit of suffering she could give him.

_Misa… I will avenge you!_

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

I know, I know... How cliched could we possibly get? Probably the most-used fanfiction plot in existance, Light trying to make L fall in love with him... Except I want to try something else with it. :)

The Trial of Souls was unashamedly stolen from Ezan, who wrote an **amazing **story called _True Elision_ that hasn't been updated in at least two years. (cry T.T) So if Ezan happens to see this, I'm sorry for stealing the concept!

Yeah, so I know I said to some people that I had _three_ ideas... One died in translation, so we're down, again, to only two. XD Tell me what you guys think!

Hugs and cake!  
Li


	2. Hidden Threats

**Hidden Threats**

When Light awoke the next morning, L was wrapped securely in his arms, his even breathing indicating that he was still deeply asleep. Light stared at him curiously, wondering if L ever had any good dreams. The way he had spoken, it seemed like he had had nothing but nightmares for as long as he could remember. But L's face now was peaceful, and as Light held him, the soft tenor voice murmured drowsily, "Lumière… Je pense… Je… Attente… Gâteau… ?"

French this time, huh? Light recognized a few of the words; his own name, and the word 'cake', for one. He smiled, amused, and leaned down to whisper very softly in L's ear, careful not to wake him.

"You shouldn't trust me, L. I'm going to kill you."

L didn't wake, but he made a sound almost like a whimper and muttered, "Non… Tueur… Vous n'êtes pas…"

That was a word he didn't recognize. 'Tueur'. He wasn't sure what it meant, and he couldn't figure it out in the context of the rest of the words. He sighed, resting his chin on the top of L's head and breathing the older boy's scent. L smelled like marshmallows. And strawberry. Light rolled his eyes. He even _smelled_ like the sweets he devoted so much of his attention to.

…Why was he focusing on this again?

He got up to wash his face and brush his hair, leaving L to clutch at a pillow in his absence. When he returned from the bathroom that they shared, he stared, puzzled. L was muttering again, too low to be heard, and shifting around agitatedly. Light walked over, reaching out to touch his shoulder and wake him up. But the instant he made contact, L stopped moving, murmuring sleepily, "Light…"

Light pulled back his hand, instead reaching for the book he kept on the side table and beginning to read. He was _not_ going to think about this right now.

xXx

L awoke a few minutes later, giving no indication of whatever had prompted his sleep-talking. Light was tempted to ask, but considering what had come before the second vocalization, he didn't want to risk it. The last thing he needed what L actually remembering what Light had said to him while he'd been sleeping.

"Light-kun, are you coming?" L asked, standing in the doorway, ready to go downstairs. Light realized he had been zoning out, yet again.

"Of course, Ryuuzaki." He followed the detective to the elevator, trying to sort out his thoughts.

The Kira case was going nowhere quickly. After Higuchi's death, they had gotten no new leads on where Kira might be hiding. L and the task force worked determinedly, but there was only so much that they could do. As such, Light had plenty of time to drift off into his own thoughts. What was he going to do? Without Misa, he needed someone to aid him, or Kira's killings would simply cease. That in itself would be suspicious, that criminals would stop dying after Misa's own death. If only he could trust L enough…

Five and a half hours later, Light got up from his chair, stretching. "I'm going to get something to eat. I was thinking that little cafe on the corner. I'll be back in about forty-five minutes."

"Light-kun?" L asked, turning around.

Light blinked. "Yes, Ryuuzaki?"

"Will you get me strawberry ice-cream on the way back?"

Light hesitated, then smiled. "Sure." L pulled a few yen from his baggy pockets, handing them to Light and thanking him before going back to his work. Light headed for the elevator, relishing in the ability to go places without L dangling from his wrist like an oversized charm bracelet.

xXx

The café was blissfully empty, the lunch rush having just cleared out. Light sat down, ordering a toasted sandwich and glancing around. He had this eerie feeling like someone was watching him, but he chalked it up to having spent too much time around L. The detective watched his every move, to the point where it was uncomfortable sometimes.

Eating his sandwich calmly, he glanced around the small café once more, and froze when he finally saw the eyes that were focused on him. They were eyes full of hate, and Light almost choked on his sandwich.

"Rem!"

The Shinigami drifted over, still staring at him, and Light reached into his bag for his cell-phone, pulling it out and pretending to punch some buttons before holding it up to his ear. "What are you doing?"

"Clever, Yagami Light." Rem said. "Using that device to talk to me without suspicion."

"What do you want?" Light asked.

Rem glared at him. "Vengeance for Misa."

Light gripped the phone tighter. "What Misa did was not my fault. And you cannot do anything to me, Rem. I'm immune to your notebook." Though he would never show it, he was nervous. Rem was quite possibly the only one that he had never been able to win over through charm and sweet-talking. The Shinigami hated him from the start, and Misa's death had only intensified it.

"Misa's death was a direct result of your actions." Rem gave Light no chance to lie and deny it, continuing immediately, "And I have found other ways to hurt you. I've watched, and I've waited, and finally know how to do it."

Light's fingers twitched on the cell-phone. It was absolutely killing him, the Shinigami's cryptic threats. He preferred people to be straight with him. Ryuuzaki had never tried to sugarcoat it. When he caught Kira, he would send the murderer to his execution. Rem, on the other hand… Light had no idea what she would do.

Rem looked him straight in the eyes.

"I will get rid of L for you."

Light felt like time had stopped. That… That wasn't a threat! That wasn't a danger! It was the exact opposite of danger; it was perfect! Rem must have seen the shock and sudden look of triumph on his face, for she said, sounding almost smug, "You believe this to be a good thing, but you will see quickly that you are wrong."

"I can't possibly be wrong! Getting rid of that annoyance; that's what I've been working towards since he appeared. This is perfect!"

Rem smiled crookedly. "We will see, Light Yagami. I will come tonight." She flew away, up through the ceiling, and Light put away his cell phone, grinning uncontrollably. L was going to disappear! He wouldn't be able to oppose Light's justice any more! Light almost felt like dancing through the streets, proclaiming his victory to the world, but settled for buying L his strawberry ice-cream, relishing the thought that every sweet L ate was closer to his last.

xXx

It had taken some coaxing, but he had gotten L to come away from the computer and watch a movie after everyone else had gone home. It was an American movie, The Dark Knight, that Light had gotten bootlegged from a friend. He figured that L would appreciate it, since English was his first language, and he thought that Batman would definitely be a good superhero to expose L to. After all, both were referred to as the 'World's Greatest Detective'.

"Alfred entirely has a point." L said, somewhere in the middle of the movie. "There are some criminals out there who aren't after anything in particular. Those are the ones that are the most difficult to stop." He frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then said, "But technically, going to Hong Kong after that man would be illegal. It would count as kidnap. He should have gotten the Chinese police involved."

Light laughed, reaching out and pulling the skinny detective closer. "He's not you, Ryuuzaki. You have the influence over the world's police to do that. Batman is just a vigilante, in one city."

L huffed, leaning on Light's shoulder. "Like Kira is a vigilante?"

"Batman doesn't kill people." Light said, refusing to rise to the bait. L hummed in response, and went back to watching the movie.

Some time later, as the movie ended, Light said absently, "You could totally be Batman, Ryuuzaki."

L shifted to look up at him, confused. "How do you see that, Light-kun?"

Light held up his hand before L's face, ticking off points as he named them. "Almost no one knows your true identity besides Watari, the task force, and I…"

"Are you Rachel, then, Light-kun?"

Light ignored the teasing, continuing, "Watari helps you with everything you need, and he could probably build all those gadgets Batman has. After all, he knows how to use a sniper rifle. You're definitely strong enough to take on bad guys barehanded, because of your capoeira…"

"I don't have a secret lair anywhere." L objected.

Light laughed. "No L-Cave filled with gummy worms and rock-candy? You have this building…" L shook his head, and glanced back at the credits rolling onscreen. Light stared at him, intense ebony eyes reading the names as they scrolled past. American names that meant next to nothing to Light, but L read them anyway.

Light wondered if he had guessed; if that was why he was indulging Light with this. Something as normal as watching a movie, but Rem was coming for him tonight. Impulsively, Light reached out, tipping L's chin up and kissing him. "Ryuu…"

"Don't." L said, pulling back. "Today was… perfect, somehow. Don't say anything now that might ruin it. Tomorrow… say whatever you like."

"Ryuu… No, I have to ask." Light said. He had to ask the skinny detective now, or else he wouldn't get another chance. "If you had a chance to meet Kira, to work with Kira, to make it so that everything _worked_… Would you?"

"Modifying Kira's plan?" L questioned. Light nodded, seriously, and L put his thumb to his lips. "That… might work. But the personality that I associate with Kira would not allow for such a thing."

"But if Kira were willing to work with you, suspending all disbelief for a moment…"

L shook his head. "Kira is still a murderer, and must pay for his crimes."

They went to their room, changing into pajamas, and Light piled the pillows up against the headboard and sat down. L turned to look at him, frowning.

"What are you doing?"

Light held out his arms, welcoming. "Just come sit with me for a minute."

L hesitated for a second, then walked over to sit. He could tell that Light was acting differently, he just didn't know why.

Light wrapped his arms around him, pulling the detective back to lean against him, back-to-chest. He had gotten good at faking relationships from years of catering to the adoring girls who practically flung themselves at him, not to mention Misa. So it was a simple matter to act without raising L's suspicions. In fact, it seemed almost easier than usual. He buried his nose in raven hair, inhaling deeply. L had some sort of special shampoo that smelled like vanilla frosting, and it was almost saccharine, assaulting Light's senses. But in just a short while, he wouldn't have to deal with any of the elder man's quirks ever again.

"Light-kun." L said quietly. Light tilted his head questioningly, and L felt the movement and continued, "I think that you should just tell me that you are Kira." Light stiffened, and L started to amend, "I would…"

But whatever he would have done was lost to stunned silence, as Rem drifted through the ceiling, Death Note in hand.

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I _LOVE_ that movie. XD

Light's such an idiot. He just doesn't get it yet, does he? (sigh) So this week is exam week hell, so I don't know how much writing I'll be able to get done. O.o School sucks. But it's almost over!

**L's French:**

"Light... I think... I... Wait... Cake?"

"No... Killer... You can't..." (It's either 'you can't' or 'you wouldn't', I don't remember which. 'Killer' because Kira is basically the Japanese pronunciation of killer, so in French, it would be the French word.)

(hands over chibi!Near plushie, just because)  
Hugs!  
Li


	3. Seal: BWS

**Seal: BWS**

"S-Shinigami-san." L said quietly, staring up at Rem. "To what do we owe this visit?"

"I have come to take what is due to me." Rem replied, smiling faintly. "Yagami Light, I am here to do what you wished." It was a knowing smile, and there were wicked promises in it. Light didn't pay that any mind, as he was suddenly preoccupied.

L had stiffened in his arms, freezing absolutely motionless as he took in exactly what Rem had said. "What _you_ wished, Light-kun…? You…"

Light smirked, leaning down to whisper in L's ear, "Well, Ryuuzaki, didn't you just get through asking if I was Kira? Here is your answer."

Rem calmly opened her notebook and pulled out a pen, beginning to write. L started to struggle, and though Light wasn't sure if he was going for the notebook, or a phone, or anything else, he held tightly to the raven-haired detective, not letting him go. The detective thrashed, trying anything to fight Light's grip, but eventually fell still.

"You are… crueler than I had imagined, Light-kun." he murmured. "After telling me that you would never manipulate someone with their emotions…" His dark hair fell over his eyes, hiding what he was thinking from Light's gaze. Rem had finished writing, but had pulled out some sort of stamp and stamped the page. Light watched for a moment, mildly interested, then turned his attention to the clock. Rem would set it to happen right away, whatever it was.

Forty seconds ticked by, and L said quietly, his voice barely audible, "Not a heart attack, then." It may have been spoken quietly, but Light could feel how tense he was.

"No." Rem said. "I am required to wait a full minute for the seal to take effect."

"Seal?" Light asked, frowning. He shifted slightly, beginning to feel uneasy. What had Rem done?

"Yes. A seal to take his soul, not just kill him." Rem said. "The end result is the same. He is gone from your way."

L had actually trembled slightly at this, but Light glanced back at the clock. The remaining twenty seconds had passed, and he said, a bit harshly, "Well, do what you must, then." He had set the cameras earlier, before they watched the movie, to loop last night's footage of them getting ready for bed and going to sleep. Watari would see none of this, but Light didn't want to take any chances. He still needed time to come up with a story as to why L was dead in the morning.

Rem nodded, drifting closer, reaching out to L and still smiling eerily. L began to fight Light's hold again, but it was less calculated. Normally the raven-haired boy could break Light's grip on him, but that was when he was considering where the boy was weakest, and how to exploit it. Now, he was simply fighting because he was afraid. Light, holding on for dear life to keep him in place, took a second to appreciate the fact that L was indeed human enough to feel emotions like fear. He had steeled himself for death, for the agony of a heart attack, if necessary. He hadn't been prepared for the idea of a Shinigami coming for his soul, and he was afraid. Rem's bony white fingers touched the center of his chest, and he froze, staring at the Shinigami. Rem's hand became intangible, going _through_ him, and L screamed.

He was obviously in pain; whatever Rem was doing to him hurt like nothing else on earth ever could. Light knew that the building was not soundproofed, and if L kept screaming like that Watari would come. He did the only thing he could think of in that moment and turned L's head, kissing him to muffle the sound. L cried out and tried to bite him, but missed entirely. Light kept his cries of pain quiet, running one hand through L's hair.

Rem pulled her hand back, curled around something insubstantial and silvery that trailed between her fingers. At that moment, L went limp, his head falling against Light's collarbone, as if he'd gone to sleep. Light stopped moving for a split second, allowing the thought to run unhindered across his mind.

_It was over. He had won._

The thought didn't make him as happy as he had thought it would. Where was his joy for the removal of the greatest obstacle to his utopia? He shifted uneasily again, and that was when he realized that he could feel L's breath, soft and even against his chest. He reached forward, lifting the slender wrist and feeling for a pulse.

There was a heartbeat. L was still alive.

The self-proclaimed god glared up at Rem, relief and anger warring. Anger won out, and he growled, "You lied to me. He's not dead."

The Shinigami smirked at him. "I did not say that he would die. I said that he would be gone from your way. The body can live without the soul, but as you can imagine, it is essentially hollow. You could wake him if you tried, but I don't recommend it." There was a triumphant quality in her voice as she added, "And I have avenged Misa."

"What?" Light felt a brief flare of panic. "What do you mean?!"

"I finally saw what Misa saw that night. Truth, not the lies that she was accustomed to." Rem said. She showed Light the notebook, where in smooth handwriting, the name 'L Lawliet' was written, next to a small stamp of an 'X', one side white and one side black. "Kill him if you choose. I no longer care. Farewell, Yagami Light." The white Shinigami drifted back through the ceiling and was gone.

"Lawliet…" Light whispered. L didn't move, and Light carefully tucked him into bed. This… would be easy to explain. L wouldn't wake up. And if the task force or Watari tried to awaken him, they could deal with a soulless L, not him.

He curled up on his side of the bed, ignoring the unconscious detective on the other side. 'Unconscious' had never been a more perfect word, as, if Rem was right, L didn't _have_ a consciousness anymore.

xXx

When he woke up, nothing had changed. Normally, if L was still sleeping when Light awoke, the auburn-haired boy's movement woke him. He never slept deeply. But today, L remained asleep, and Light was completely unnerved. What was he going to do?

Lie. Of course. But what would they believe? He showered and changed like every other morning, considering the possibilities. He could tell them that L wasn't feeling well, and that he had agreed to stay in bed to get better. That would work, and in the meantime… he could figure out what to do.

The task force believed him, and even when Watari went to check on him, he believed the detective to be asleep. He didn't try to wake him up, knowing that L didn't sleep enough in the first place. This left Light to direct the other task force members, and spend a lot of time thinking.

There was still a piece of the Death Note in his watch. Rem had given him L's name. It would be simple to end this; he could write 'dies in his sleep'. No one could pin that on him. But for some reason, every time he reached for the tiny pin in his watch, he felt sick to his stomach. Maybe it was because L wasn't supposed to go down like this, helplessly unconscious. He was supposed to go out fighting, like he had been last night.

"Light-kun, you seem very on-edge today." Matsuda said worriedly, bringing over a stack of papers. "Is everything okay?"

"Just worried about Ryuuzaki." Light said. It was the truth, after all. "He's never gotten sick before. Not that I've seen."

"Watari-san says that he's sleeping, so he'll be better in no time. I'm sure!" Light wanted to smack Matsuda for being so inappropriately cheerful, but he couldn't blame the detective for not knowing what made him so uneasy. L wasn't going to get better, and he was dreading the moment that the task force figured it out.

He slipped away at lunch to 'check on L'. He went back to their room, sitting down on the bed and feeling L's forehead. He was still warm, proof that he truly _wasn't _dead. Light sighed, realizing that the thing that had been missing all morning, so obviously, was L's presence. Light had thought that this would be the greatest moment of his time as Kira. His enemy laid low before him. Light could do whatever he wanted to L right now, and the detective would never know. But something stopped him.

He went back to work more unnerved than before. What was _wrong_ with him? This was what he'd _wanted_! He'd given Rem permission to do this, for the sake of his new world. So why did he feel… guilty?

xXx

By the time the task force had gone home, Light was ready to tear his hair out in frustration. What had Rem meant when she said she knew how to hurt him? What did it mean, what Misa had seen? Truth, not lies? He stormed back up to their room, and stopped in the doorway to stare at L.

The silly thought crossed his mind that perhaps a kiss would awaken him, like Sleeping Beauty. He walked over and looked down at the peaceful-looking detective for a moment, before leaning down and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. L didn't move, and Light felt something that he hadn't in a long time. Disappointment. Real, honest disappointment. He had wanted that kiss to awaken L, despite what it would mean.

He sat down on his own side of the bed, feeling like screaming. Everything was starting to make sense now, everything that had happened. It was all finally beginning to add up.

Somewhere along the way, it had stopped being pretend. Somewhere in the two weeks that he had 'faked' his relationship with L, pretend affection and false caring had become genuine concern for the skinny insomniac. Misa had seen it, the night she walked in on them kissing in the investigation room. He had been looking at Ryuuzaki like she had always wished he would look at her, and it had destroyed her.

And Rem had figured it out. Rem had figured it out, knowing that Light hadn't realized, and offered to take L, knowing that Light would jump at the chance. Knowing that it would hurt him so much more after he realized.

"Fuck you, Rem!" he raged at the expressionless ceiling. There was no answer, but Light could imagine Rem laughing somewhere from the Shinigami Realm. But shouting at the absent Shinigami was not going to change the fact that something had happened that he had never counted on.

He had fallen in love with L.

But what could he do now? He could wake L up, but who knew what a person without a soul was like? He didn't want to have to face that.

_I've… done something horribly stupid._

If he was God, then why… why didn't he have the ability to bring L back? In that moment, he had the answer, the one that L had probably been trying to convince him of all along. Kira could not be a god, because gods had the power to create, as well as destroy. Kira could only destroy.

Light reached out, sinking his hand into L's thick hair and just sitting there thinking for a long moment. That was how Ryuk found him ten minutes later, apple in hand, grinning.

"Rem said something like this would happen." he chuckled. "I didn't believe her!" He took a huge chomp out of his apple, as Light turned to stare at him questioningly. He laughed. "Oh, yeah, Rem told me her whole plan. She knew you'd fallen for that wacky detective. The King wanted a new soul for the Labyrinth, so she decided to take L's, and leave you to deal with the consequences."

"Labyrinth?" Light asked.

"Yeah. One of the alternate planes. There's Heaven, Hell, Mu, the Shinigami Realm, and the Labyrinth of Souls, which decides where you go when you die." Ryuk explained, being unnaturally helpful for once. Probably because he was enjoying Light's utter helplessness in this situation. "Occasionally, we have to give a soul to the Labyrinth to make sure it keeps working right. We've been neglecting it."

"Would it be possible to get into the Labyrinth to get L's soul back?" Light asked quietly.

Ryuk stared at him for a second, then began to laugh hysterically. "A living person in the Labyrinth? I don't think that's ever been done! That would be so much fun! You'd have to explain where you'd gone to the task force, though. And what about L? He'll still be sleeping like a baby."

"I…" Light didn't really want to think of telling his father or the other detectives. There was really only one person he could tell the truth. The one person who cared about L's well-being just as much as Light. He only hoped that Watari didn't have him locked up, himself.

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Light-o, Watari's going to HATE you! XD

It's the first chapter posted from the BRAND-NEW COMPUTER that now resides in the upstairs hallway of my house! (throws virtual ticker-tape parade) YAY! Can't stay on too long, though. Mom will be back soon. (shifty eyes) Enjoy!

Hugs!  
Li


	4. Alive in Death

**Alive in Death**

It had taken a bit of searching, but Light had finally found a complete map of the building on L's computer. He located the control room quickly and took off, practically running in his haste. Ryuk followed behind, laughing maniacally and munching yet another apple stolen from one of the building's numerous kitchens.

Watari was not looking at him when the door opened, and Light took a brief second to wonder why the elderly man hadn't gone to bed yet. His train of thought was cut off as, without turning around, Watari inquired, "Yes, Ryuuzaki? Are you feeling better?" Light figured it was safe to assume that L was the only one who ever came up here. He took a step into the room, and Watari turned around. "Yagami-kun? How did you get here?" Light said nothing for a moment, and Watari asked, "Yagami-kun, what's the matter?"

"L isn't sick." Light said quietly. When Watari only stared at him, he continued, "His soul has been taken by a Shinigami. He won't wake up, now."

Watari, to his credit, remained perfectly calm. "How do you know, Yagami-kun?"

Light moved past him to the computer. He had left one camera running that night, just recording without showing on any of the monitors. He had wanted a record of his 'victory', for some time in the future. But now, it could be proof. He set the video to play, and stepped away from the computer.

There was complete silence as the tape played all the way through. Watari, like the rest of the task force, could see Rem, having touched the notebook. The playback turned itself off as it reached the end of the recording, and Light waited for the bomb to drop. Watari was going to be furious. Watari might kill him, alone in this soundproofed control room. He knew that the elderly man always had some sort of handgun with him, and he could simply claim that his life had been in danger and give the tape to the taskforce as proof of Light's identity as Kira.

"Yagami-kun..." Watari said quietly. "I want you to explain everything to me, from the moment that you picked up the Death Note. Leave nothing out."

Light was astonished at the lack of anger that Watari was showing, but he began to talk immediately. It took the better part of an hour, but he related even the smallest details, determined not to upset the older man even more than he likely already had.

When he was finished, Watari paused for a moment, thinking everything over, and then said with barely concealed anger, "What were you thinking, Yagami?" Uncertain, Light said nothing, and Watari continued, "I can understand your contempt for murderers, rapists, criminals... But where you and L differ is your methods. What do you think happened to people who were wrongfully convicted? You killed them anyway. What about the FBI, Naomi Misora...? Lind L. Tailor?"

"Tailor was a criminal." Light said defensively. "He was on Death Row."

"But you didn't know that at the time! You thought you were killing L!" Watari nearly shouted. Light, to his great chagrin, actually shrank back some in the face of the unexpected outburst. Watari glared at him with such hate, he was almost afraid. "You lost your image of justice the moment that you killed Tailor, believing him to be L. You killed people merely for being after you, not for any crime that they had committed. And L, whose life's work was taking criminals off the streets... You've worse than killed him."

"I..." Light didn't know if he was going to apologize or defend himself, but Watari interrupted first.

"L was not my son by blood. But I've raised him since he was eight years old, and he is my child. I want to know why I should not go directly to your father, and give him this tape as proof of your guilt."

"Because I'm going to try to save him!" Light cried. He told Watari everything that Ryuk had said, about the Labyrinth, and the chance that going in might enable him to get L's soul back. "You can't have me arrested now, or I might lose my only chance to bring L back!"

Watari stared at him, appraising. He finally smiled grimly. "I knew that L had fallen for you, and I did not approve in the least. But the Shinigami was right. You have fallen in love with L as well. I will not go to the task force, at least not until you return, and then it will be L's call. If you return without him, I will go to them immediately, with this tape."

"Thank you!" Light gasped. He couldn't believe that he had escaped without some kind of retribution. "I... I don't know how anything works, from here on out. I need to go find Ryuk."

"Good luck." Watari said quietly. Light nodded quickly, turning and running back out of the room. Watari watched him go, wondering if he had done the right thing by leaving L's fate in the hands of one who had wished for nothing but his death for so long. But at this point, trusting Kira was his only choice.

xXx

"Ryuk!" Light tore back into the bedroom, finding the Shinigami lounging in mid-air above the bed, munching on a third apple. He flipped upright as soon as he saw Light, grinning twistedly.

"The old man didn't lock you up. I thought he would." he observed.

Light ignored him. "Ryuk, what do I have to do to get into the Labyrinth?" He didn't know what he was going to do when he got there, but if it was the only way to save L, he was willing to do whatever it took.

Ryuk chuckled. "You're really going to do this, aren't you? Alright then..." He drifted down so it looked like he was sitting cross-legged on Light's side of the bed. "Human's can't enter the Shinigami Realm, but I can take your soul with me, as if you were dead. That will grant you entrance to the Trial." He pulled out a black stone on a long cord, holding it out for Light to take. "This is your way out. You and one person you're holding on to will be brought out of the Trial, back to your living bodies. Get L and bring him back with you, because you can only go once. Trying to take your soul twice would more than likely kill you."

Light reached out and took the stone, nodding. "I understand, Ryuk." The Shinigami moved, and he climbed up to sit on the bed next to L. "Do what you have to."

"Okay!" Ryuk drifted closer, grinning. Light remembered pain, unimaginable pain, Ryuk's laughter, falling backwards, and then nothing.

xXx

"...stay here too long."

Light sat up, rubbing at his forehead uncertainly. The black stone was on its cord around his neck, and he touched it hesitantly before looking around. "What?"

Ryuk sighed. "I said, you might not want to stay here too long. Rem could be around, and she will be less than pleased to see you."

"Oh..." Light stared out at the barren grey landscape. Odd arches and spires of stone dotted the flat ground, and there was the occasional round, hollow formation that seemed to have some sort of portal or window in it. "Is this the Shinigami Realm?"

"Yeah. I don't know how to get to the Labyrinth from the Human World. Other than killing you, but that's no good." Ryuk chuckled. He pointed towards the largest of the arches. "The gate is there. Once you go in, you have to complete the Trial if you want your detective back. You can bail with the stone partway through, but you don't get a second chance."

"How does it know that L's soul is what I'm after?" Light asked. "How do I know it won't send me to Mu or Hell or back here?"

"The Labyrinth knows." Ryuk said. "It knows you're not dead, so it knows what you've come for. The same way it will know what challenges to give you. But the first one is always the same. Come on." He spread his wings, flying in the direction of the gate, and Light hurried to keep up. When they stopped, Light saw that the gate was an actual gate, made of what looked like wrought-iron, topped with spikes. "This is the entrance from the Shinigami Realm." Ryuk said. "Just remember two things. Anyone that you meet during the challenges is an illusion of that person, and the first challenge is always the Sorrow's River."

"What's the Sorrow's River?" Light was feeling frustrated by how little he actually knew about the challenge he was about to undertake. But he called to mind the idea of L, lifelessly sleeping back at home, and took a step forward.

"I don't know." Ryuk replied. "No one will ever answer. But I'm sure you can do it. Come back with L, okay, Light?"

Light turned back to stare at the Shinigami. "You're being unusually nice to me, Ryuk." he said, smiling.

Ryuk rolled his eyes. "You're the most interesting human I've met in forever. It would suck if you died in the Labyrinth."

Light turned back to the gate. "Thanks, Ryuk." He stood there for a second more, then took a deep breath, pushed the gate open, and stepped through. Ryuk watched him go, for once not laughing, and said quietly, "I hope you know what you're getting into, kid."

xXx

All Light could see was grey, a sort of shapeless grey fog that roiled in front of his eyes like water. He realized he was lying on his stomach in the dirt, and pushed himself to his feet. The fog was only a foot or two deep, and flowed steadily in one direction, like a river. This must be what Ryuk had meant. But should he follow the fog, or walk the other way, towards the source?

He took a few steps out into the fog, and finally saw other people. But these people seemed dull, lifeless, somehow drained of color. There were people of every age and ethnicity. American, European, Japanese... Light hurried into the middle of the crowd, and anxiously pushed through, looking for someone he recognized.

"Does anyone know what's going on here?" he called, but no one answered. He grabbed a man who was walking by, shaking him, but when the man looked up Light recoiled in shock.

It was Takuo Shibuimaru, the motorcyclist that Light had killed second with the Death Note. Takuo looked at him blankly, and walked on. As Light began to look around, _really_ look, he began to notice other faces. Criminals who he had killed without batting an eye. That was why this was the Sorrow's River. The dead walked here.

Light looked around for any sort of person who looked the least little bit friendly, and spotted Raye Penber from a distance. He raced towards him, grabbing his arm and asking urgently, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Will you help me?"

"Why should I help you, Yagami Light? _Kira?_" Penber spat. He shook off Light's hold on his arm, and walked on. Light glanced around frantically.

"Why won't anyone talk to me? Not everyone can hate me!" he cried.

"You don't get it? Hehn hehn hehn..." an unfamiliar voice said. Light whirled to face the speaker, and gasped. White shirt, baggy jeans, tousled hair hanging over his eyes...

"L?!" Light gasped. The doppelganger looked up, and red eyes gleamed dangerously.

"L? L?! You managed to kill L? No, I don't think you did, Little Kira. I would have seen him by now."

Light took a step back, unnerved. This odd copy wasn't L. He remembered what Ryuk had said, about illusions. Maybe this was one. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" the copy giggled. "It would be nice of you to remember me, but I can't expect too much. After all, look at all the people you killed! Asking you to remember just one is too much, I suppose." He swept his arm wide, to indicate all of the people around them.

"I... These are all people that I... killed?" Light asked shakily.

The doppelganger giggled again. "Of course! Every last one! You did a lot with that cursed notebook. Of course, it was unfair to kill Naomi Misora before me. And in such a way! The only person to best me, and you killed her like it was nothing. Such a pity."

"Misora-san is here?" Light asked.

"Of course!" With a wide, creepy grin, the copy stepped forward. "My name is Beyond Birthday, convicted murderer. No one has touched you yet, because you have no purpose. But our purpose, once you decide on your course, is to stop you from getting to the door."

Light remembered the name, now, because he had thought it so unusual when writing it down. But he hadn't met L until May, and had forgotten the face. How similar they looked! But if there was one thing Light knew, staring that the eerie smile of the red-eyed killer...

This was going to be harder than he thought.

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We couldn't have a river full of dead people without my most favorite dead criminal of them all! BB-kun is awesome, all the time. I'm going to Anime Mid-Atlantic this Saturday dressed up as him, so if any of you are going to be there, come find me!

And so Light's trial begins! XD This is going to be so much fun. Feel the pain, Light-o. Mwahahahaha!

Luv for all of you!  
Li


	5. Light's Prize

**Light's Prize**

It was... unnerving, to say the least. Standing among the hundreds, no, thousands of people that you had personally ended the lives of. As Light looked around, he recognized face after face, all of them looking dull and hopeless, walking on towards wherever the river ended. Was this real? Were these people really here, walking slowly towards whatever fate awaited them, trapped in this grey world of fog? Or was this merely the illusions of people, like Ryuk had said, and all of them were really in Heaven, Hell, or Mu? Light didn't know, but it was scaring him. He didn't know what the rest of the Trial would be like, but this... This was horrible. He had one clue, from the L that wasn't L, but it wasn't enough.

"Door?" he asked the doppelganger, Beyond Birthday.

Beyond giggled. "There is a door at the river's source. That is the end of this stage of the Trial. That is where you have to go." He reached out, grabbing Light by the upper arm. "Walk with me. We'll find Naomi Misora-san."

Light figured that it wouldn't be a good idea to fight with a deranged killer, and started walking. "How do you know that I'm in the Trial?"

"Because there are always one or two people who know that they are merely illusion, and they can help you if you find them. Or..." Here Beyond laughed again. "Or they can refuse, and taunt you instead."

"And are you helping me?"

"I'm explaining things, aren't I?" Beyond said sourly, suddenly frowning. "Look, there's Misora! Oi, Misora-san!"

A woman in a leather jacket stopped walking and turned to face them. Naomi Misora, exactly as Light remembered her. She blinked at him suspiciously, then sighed. "We know it is illusion, but you honestly want to help Kira, Ryuzaki?"

"You're Ryuzaki?" Light said in surprise.

Beyond laughed again, his good humor restored. "L never told you, Little Kira? He won his names of Coil and Deneuve in a detective war with the real detectives with those aliases, so he won my name when he defeated me. Ryuzaki Rue was _my_ alias. L and I grew up together."

Light stared at him. This must be the LABB murders. L had mentioned them once, but Light hadn't pressed for details, because L had seemed unhappy with them even being brought up. This murderer, though... He had grown up with L. He had a _story_. It was the first time that Light had ever thought about these people as more than a crime and a name on a page. All of them were human beings, and all of them had lives beyond the crime that they had committed.

This wasn't even everyone that "Kira" had killed. Many more had died at Misa's hands, and if Light understood right, they weren't even here. This was just the people whose deaths he alone was responsible for.

Naomi Misora was staring at him appraisingly. "Did you tell him about the door? He always must find the door."

"I told him, I told him." Beyond too looked at Light, head tilted curiously. As they resumed walking, he asked eagerly, "So, Little Kira... You aren't dead. What is your prize for finishing the Labyrinth?"

Light hesitated, then looked at the ground. "I let a Shinigami steal his soul away... L's soul... I have to get him back."

"WHAT?" Both Beyond and Misora stopped dead and stared at him. Naomi managed to speak first, breathing in disbelief, "L? You let them take his soul for the Labyrinth?"

"That's worse than what you did to us!" Beyond howled. "At least we died, at least we had a chance to move on to somewhere else! His soul will remain to serve the Labyrinth until it becomes nothing!"

Light took a step back from them, and realized with a start that they had been walking with the flow of the river, away from where he needed to go. He took another step back. "You tricked me. We're going the wrong way!"

"I told you, Little Kira..." Beyond's smile now was cruel, no trace of mirth or playfulness left. "Our purpose, once you realize yours, is to keep you from reaching the door." Both he and Naomi lunged, but Light dodged their grabbing hands, turning to sprint in the other direction. Beyond's wicked laughter followed him as he ran for his life in the direction of the supposed door. He didn't know where it was or what it looked like, but he knew he had to reach it to move on.

People stepped into his path no matter how he dodged, and he furiously elbowed them out of his way. He didn't know what would happen if he ended up at the other end of the river, but he certainly didn't want to find out. But he slowed down upon seeing a small family of three, a mother and her two children. He... he wouldn't have killed them, would he? If they weren't criminals...

As his purpose changed, the door forgotten for the moment, the people around him ceased grabbing and chasing, leaving Light free to approach the woman.

"Um..." he began awkwardly, but the woman glared at him.

"Murderer!" she cried. Light took a step back, and she shook her fist at him. "We are dead because of you!" Her children, one about ten and one about four, hung back, looking sad.

"I don't understand..." he said. It hurt to admit it, but he honestly had no idea. Even he would have thought twice about 'judging' children.

"My husband was wrongly imprisoned, and you killed him! We had no way to earn enough to pay for food, healthcare, anything! You killed us, just as you killed him!"

Light stepped back, frightened. How many of the people in here were like this woman, dead not because they were criminals, but because of someone he had killed? Killing L would have extended Misa's lifespan, thus killing Rem, which was why she wouldn't do it originally. But it proved that one person's lifespan affected another's. If killing someone could lengthen one person's lifespan, could it shorten someone else's? If everyone's lifespan was connected...

He turned and ran, using the valuable seconds he had before they tried to stop him. The river of mist was narrowing, and Light could imagine that it was about the width of a normal sized door.

There it was, up ahead! A simple wooden door, set into a stone wall that apparently marked the end of the 'room'. It was the only wall that Light had seen, but at that point, he didn't care. He sprinted for it, dead on, but at the last second was grabbed from the side.

"Light!"

Light stared in horror at the blonde model clinging to his arm. Dead by his actions, even if it wasn't intentional... "Misa?"

"Of course!" she chimed, hugging his arm tighter. "Misa is sad that you're dead, but now we can be together forever and ever!"

"Misa, no." Light said, trying to extricate his arm from her grip. "I have... I'm on a mission."

"While you're dead? Don't be silly!"

"I'm not dead, Misa. I'm doing a... a Trial. To... to save L."

Misa froze abruptly, looking up at him for a moment before stepping back. "L?" she whispered. "Even here... you still...?" She looked down, seemingly crushed.

"Misa..." Light tried, but she blinked at him mournfully.

"Misa-Misa saw it. The way that you looked at him. You must love him a lot, to even come here for him." she said. "I... I guess I can't compete with true love, right?" And unlike everyone else he had met so far, she stepped aside, to let him go.

Light hesitated a second, then hugged her. "Thank you, Misa. I'll never forget this. You'll get to Heaven, I know it."

"Misa will always love you, Light." the blonde girl said, hugging him back. "Goodbye."

Light ran for the door, seeing out of the corner of his eye the other people catching up. He sprinted through the door, and it slammed behind him as he found himself in a dim, featureless room. The only thing in it was a simple bed, and asleep in the bed...

Was L.

Light walked over, peering down at him apprehensively. Like the L he had left on earth, this one slept peacefully, and didn't stir even when Light shook his shoulder gently. Light sank to the floor beside the bed, his head in his hands. What was he supposed to do? He fought through a river of the dead, for this? An L as unresponsive as the one he had left?

Briefly, he thought of his foolish idea, the one that hadn't worked before. But things were different now, so maybe... He scrambled to his feet, looking down at L's still form for a moment before pressing a single quick kiss to his lips.

For a few moments, nothing happened. Then L stirred, blinking sleepily before gazing up at Light. "Who... are you?"

The elation that Light had felt at L actually awakening with his kiss evaporated. Did he not remember? He stared deep into ebony eyes, and said softly, "It's me, Light. Do you remember?"

L frowned, thinking for a second before looking distressed. "No. I don't remember anything. Why can't I remember?"

"Your name is Lawliet." Light said quickly. "But everyone called you L. I'm your... friend, Light." It must be something to do with the Labyrinth. It had taken L's memory, as another challenge for Light to overcome.

"My friend...?" L sat up, looking around. "Where are we?" Panic filled his eyes briefly as he looked around the small room. "What's going on?"

Light sighed, deciding that the truth, or at least part of it, would be the easiest. "We're in a room in a place called the Labyrinth. You... You were captured, and I have to finish the Trial to get you out."

Memoryless, trusting L stared at him apprehensively. He thought for a second, then, as inspiration struck him, said, "I bet I have to finish more challenges, to get your memory back. Then we can go home."

L looked down for a second, his hair covering his eyes in a familiar shade, leaving Light once again unable to tell what he was thinking. He looked back up, and Light saw a flicker of old suspicion in his eyes. "How do I know that you're telling me the truth?"

"Please, L." Light said quietly. "Please trust me, just this once." He didn't know if it was the tone of his voice, or the look on his face, but L looked away for a moment, then looked back and said quietly, "I don't think you're lying to me. I... I will trust you."

"Thank you." Light looked around the small room. There was a second door on the wall opposite the way he had come in. "I bet I have to go through there to reach the next part." He smiled, glancing back at L and said, "I'll come back. I promise." Then he walked to the door, opened it, stepped through, and was gone.

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Aww. XD

So AMA was AWESOME! I got random hugged all over the place, and got to meet Chuck Huber, and bought an L plushie eating cake! :D Life is good.

(I also got an "I heart yaoi" button, and refused to explain what it meant to my dad. XD)

Hugs!  
Li


	6. Utopia

**Utopia**

Tokyo was a beautiful city, full of lights and brightly colored billboards proclaiming all types of things to the population. The streets were as familiar to Light as his own house, since he had lived there all his life, so when he stepped through the door and onto a busy street, he knew exactly where he was.

He turned around, puzzled, and realized that the door he had just come from now lead back into a small grocery store. There was no sign of the small, dim room where L was waiting for him. Beyond Birthday and Naomi Misora had said that in every challenge, he had to find the door, but could it be any door in the city? It could take decades to check _every single door_.

He wondered why the Trial would send him blindly into the streets of Tokyo, with no direction whatsoever. He knew Tokyo like the back of his hand, but he had been under the impression that there was something specific that he had to do in each challenge. Roaming the streets looking for one door was not a fair task, in his opinion.

He walked out, arbitrarily turning left, and began to make his way down the street. As he walked, he noticed how _subdued_ everyone seemed. People didn't make eye contact with each other, no one really stopped to speak, and everyone was extraordinarily careful in their movements and actions, like they were afraid.

Light walked for a while, wondering what was going on. He had never heard Tokyo so quiet in his entire life. There was always noise, action, and chatter, blending together into the cacophonous symphony that made up the city. He stopped a man who was walking by with his head down, and shook him.

"What's the matter with you? What's going on?"

The man looked terrified, looking around frantically as if for help, and a low, musical voice from behind Light said cheerfully. "_Well_. You're not from around here, are you?"

Light released the man, who scurried away immediately, and turned to face the newcomer. It was the only person he had seen who had willingly tried to speak to him. A slender boy with curly black hair was standing there, green eyes infinitely amused with what he was seeing. He swept a mocking bow, saying quietly, "My name is Noir. Noir Rosewood. And you are...?"

"Light Yagami." Light said warily. He wasn't sure what to make of this boy, who looked only a year or so older than Light himself. Noir had frozen at the name, and stared at him blankly.

"Are you kidding?" he asked. "You're definitely not from here, if you're trying to get by with that name."

"It's... It's my name." Light said uncertainly.

Noir blinked. "Well, the Light Yagami that I know looks nothing like you. And it's forbidden to speak that name anyway. You would best be careful, or Kira will find your real name and kill you."

"Kira?!" Light gasped. "What's going on? Where am I?"

Noir stared at him a moment, then said quietly, "You're really not lying." He grabbed Light by the upper arm and steered him into the nearest cafe, saying only, "Come here, and we'll talk."

Light recognized the place. It was the cafe he had visited with L, so long ago when he was truly Kira. Noir even took him to the same booth, the one in the back where no one can overhear you. The decor of the cafe had changed, but Light would know it anywhere. Noir forced him to sit down, and said, "You have no idea what's going on, do you?"

"All I know is that everyone seems terrified, and you won't believe me when I tell you my name. Why?" Light demanded.

Noir frowned. "Light Yagami is the name that used to belong to the man known as Kira. The man who now rules the world with an impartial and intolerant fist. Any crime, no matter how small, the perpetrator is brought before Kira to be tried and executed. Very few are freed. You have to be careful, with everything you do or say, because people are all too willing to turn in 'criminals'. They've fallen into the trap of Kira's promised 'utopia'."

"But I..." Light whispered, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Look, and tell me what you see." Noir said quietly. Light blinked, then turned to look in the large mirror hanging on the wall above the table. The young man who looked back at him was brunet, roughly built, and had green eyes and the beginnings of a beard. He made a small sound of surprise, and Noir said gently, "You wear someone else's guise for this challenge."

"You're one of my guides!" Light cried, realization filling his being. Noir nodded, but before he could say more, a girl with long brown hair raced into the cafe, scouted around, and ran to Noir's side.

"We have to go, Noir! Or else we'll miss the changing of the guards!"

"This is Light Yagami, Aki-chan." Noir said. "He's the one who needs our help."

Aki gazed appraisingly at Light, and said firmly, "He'll hate us later if we don't do this. You know the challenge, Noir. He needs us later, not now." She bowed to Light, then grabbed the curly-headed boy and dragged him from the cafe, leaving Light confused and worried. Now what was he supposed to do?

A twenty-dollar bill had fallen from Aki's pocket, resting innocently on the tiled floor of the cafe, near the entrance. Light walked over and picked it up, pocketing it and thinking that he would give it to her later. He assumed he would see the two again, since they were the two who knew that the world was an illusion. How did that work, anyway? Was it just like playing a giant role-play game to them? Light decided that it didn't really matter, in the grand scheme of things, and walked out of the cafe. Time to start trying doors.

"Thief!" someone shrieked behind him. Light turned back, startled, to see the girl behind the counter pointing at him. "Thief!" she cried again, and to his horror he saw police running towards him from down the street. He put his hands up, and they surrounded him when they reached him.

"What did I do?" he asked, trying his best to be self-rightious, turning on the charm he had used so often with teachers and other adults.

"He took money that this girl had dropped in here!" the counter girl cried.

The police shook Light. "He matches the description we got earlier of a guy who assaulted a man in the street. We'll take him in."

"Wait!" Light shouted. "I was going to return the money to Aki, and I didn't assault that guy! I just shook him a little, like you're doing to me now!"

"Shut up, criminal." They began to march him away, despite all of his protests, deep into the city. To stand trial before Kira.

xXx

It was a familiar mirror-windowed building that the police brought Light to. He stared up at the top of the building, twenty-three stories above the ground, remembering the times that he and L had gone up there, after Light's protests and demands for fresh air. He couldn't see the helicopter pads from the ground, but he knew they were there. This was L's investigation building, turned into Kira's palace.

Light missed what floor he was brought to. Probably one of the residential floors, converted into an audience room. And in a chair at the head of the room, he saw himself.

Was that what he had looked like? A smile like sweet poison, eyes gleaming with power? Kira was very clearly a king, if not a mortal god. Light saw a facsimile Ryuk hovering over Kira's left shoulder. He locked eyes with the illusory copy, and Ryuk stared at him a moment before laughing hysterically.

"What is his crime?" Kira asked in a regal voice, sounding almost bored.

The police explained briefly, including both the 'theft' and 'assault'. Kira listened absently, head resting on one hand, and sighed when they were finished.

"When will people learn that these petty crimes are a pointless reason to die?" he sighed. "But I cannot accept such base crimes in my perfect world." He turned to a dark-headed man seated to his right and asked, "Mikami, what is his name?"

The bookish-looking man glanced up at Light through his glasses, and Light saw his eyes flash red. Shinigami eyes. He was finished. He wondered briefly if dying counted as failing the Trial.

"Kami-sama..." Mikami began. He stood up and spoke quietly in Kira's ear for a moment, and Kira's eyes widened.

"What?!"

"It is true, my lord. The eyes do not lie." Mikami said, bowing before sitting back down. Kira fumed silently for a second, and Light, knowing his own face perfectly, could see him swallow his anger and return to his regal bearing.

"Lock the criminal in the dungeons." he decreed, the paused. "What is that? Bring it to me."

A police officer grabbed the necklace that Light had forgotten he was wearing. The one with the black stone on the end that Ryuk had given him. No! They couldn't take that! He needed that to get home with L! But the stone was delivered into Kira's hands, and Light was helpless to get it back.

"What is this? It gives off the sense of the Shinigami, as the Note does." Kira asked. Light stared at him defiantly, refusing to answer, and Kira scowled. "Take him away!"

xXx

The cell that they locked him in was one of the ones in the basement. He had never thought he would see them again, after being freed from his confinement, memoryless and innocent. He sat down on the narrow cot, unrestrained this time, and wondered what to do. There was very little hope of sweet-talking his way out of this one, and who knew how long Kira planned to keep him locked up.

He noticed a brick, usually just a part of the nondescript grey wall, wiggling slightly, sending tiny particles of dust raining to the floor. It was moving slowly but steadily out of the wall, into the cell next to him. Light got up curiously, going over and pushing on the brick to help it along. It finally came free, and a whisper came through the wall. "Who are you?"

"My name is Light Yagami." Light said.

"Truly?" The whisper came again, sounding puzzled. "I see... That is why you are imprisoned for your crime. He cannot kill you, because the face he associates with that name is his own."

"I'm not a criminal!" Light said vehemently. He told the story of how he ended up in the cell, and the whisper laughed.

"Only more proof that Kira's 'judgment' has gone too far."

Light frowned, and then asked softly, "Why are you in here?"

"He will not kill me. I am his prize, his trophy. Eight years ago I fought him, knowing that either he would be caught, or I would die. I underestimated the streak of sadism in him."

Light gasped as the story sounded all too familiar. He leaned closer to the hole, asking, "You fought Kira?"

"He killed my task force... the closest thing to a father that I had. The only hope that I have is that my family was able to evacuate and flee before he got to them too." The whisper now sounded sad. "He keeps me here as a game, because he knows my name now. His _minion_ will have told him that."

"I want to see your face." Light said, leaning down to see through the hole. For a moment, he saw nothing but white fabric, but then the figure knelt. Like looking into the blackness of space, obsidian eyes stared back at him, and he couldn't hold back the startled cry.

"L!"

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Recognize anyone? :D

Sorry, guys. I was at the beach for a week and a half, and had to get the whole chapter written after I got back. Geh. Anyway, this is so much fun to write! I can cram so many different situations into one story. XD Noir and Aki won't be the only people appearing either, but we'll get to that later. Enjoy the chapter!

Hugs!  
Li


	7. Kira's Dungeon

**Kira's Dungeon**

"You saw, then." L said bitterly. "When Kira declared his victory, he made sure to put my face on television, to prove to the world that L had been beaten, and to ensure that I would never be unknown again. He did not broadcast my name, but that is of little comfort."

Light was taken aback at the defeated tone in L's voice. Where had the detective's fire gone? Had Light _-Kira-_ really been so cruel? He could see where Kira might have killed him, but to keep him locked up like this...

"You sound... sad." It was the best he could come up with, and he kicked himself for it as soon as it left his mouth.

L sighed. "I have not seen the outside in eight years. I didn't think that I would miss it, but..." The eyes looked away for a moment, then returned to focus on Light. "He tortures me, believing that I can tell him where my family is, or what their names are. They fight him, to this day, but I have nothing to say to him."

"I'm sorry." Light whispered. It was the only thing he could bring himself to say. He saw L shake his head through the small hole in the wall.

"It's not your fault. You're just someone who happens to have the same name as Kira. Maybe that will help you live longer." He started to say something else, but suddenly moved to push the brick back into the wall. Light turned to look out the tiny barred window in the cell door, where guards were walking past. They stopped at L's cell, unlocking it and dragging the detective out.

"Lord Kira wishes to speak to you." one snapped. Light wondered why L didn't fight back, but saw that the sleuth was shackled hand and foot. Kira knew how dangerous he was. They marched him away down the hall, and Light was left alone in silence to contemplate his situation. Was this what he would have become? Maybe, just maybe, L had been right after all.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts, he didn't notice the guards coming to his own door. They hurled the door open and grabbed him unceremoniously, dragging him out and down the hall in the same direction they had taken L.

"Where are we going?" he demanded. The guards didn't answer, throwing him into a room that was empty except for a basin of water, a single guard, and the man that Kira had called Mikami. Light stared at him for a moment, then asked sharply, "What do you want?"

Mikami stared at him evenly. "We're going to interrogate you, obviously. Lord Kira is... intrigued by the coincidence of your name, and wants to know if you are associated with anyone who may be our enemy."

"Kira doesn't want to be here himself?" Light said sarcastically, trying to provoke him. But Mikami remained calm.

"Kami-sama has a different interrogation to watch over, as he finds our other prisoner far more interesting than you." he said blandly.

Light flinched. _L..._ The guard walked up behind him and kicked him in the back of the knee, forcing him to fall to his knees on the concrete floor in front of Mikami. Mikami stood up, walking over and asking quietly, "Is Light Yagami your real name?"

"Yes." Light growled.

"You are not using an alias of any kind?"

"You have Shinigami eyes!" Light snapped. "You know that it's my real name!"

Mikami froze for the briefest of moments, then motioned to the guard. He grabbed Light by the back of the head, and the teenager had just enough time to gasp in half a breath before his head was pushed underwater.

His mother had made both him and Sayu take swimming lessons when they were younger, but there was nothing that could prepare you for being nearly drowned. Light could feel his lungs burning with the effort of holding his breath, and just as he felt his head growing fuzzy from lack of air, he was pulled back up to cough and splutter helplessly.

"Where did you learn of Shinigami eyes?" Mikami demanded coldly.

Light stared at him uncertainly, cursing his stupidity. He couldn't just go around revealing everything that he knew. Especially in this challenge. It made him into a threat.

"L told me, while we were locked up." he bluffed desperately. Mikami stared at him for a moment, then gestured to the guard again. Light anticipated what was about to happen, and got a deeper breath this time, before his head was forced underwater again. Again they kept him under until he felt like blacking out, and then let him come up.

"What do you know about an organization known as Wammy's House?" Mikami asked.

"Nothing." Light answered honestly, genuinely confused this time.

Mikami frowned. "What about a boy named Near? We believe that he is the mastermind behind the rebellion against Lord Kira's rule." Light shook his head, still not knowing what Mikami was talking about, and the black-haired man snapped, "I don't believe you." And Light was forced underwater again.

Again and again they asked him about the mysterious house, and the boy named Near, and every time he told them that he knew nothing. Eventually, Mikami acquiesced that he wasn't going to tell them anything of use, and ordered him taken back to his cell. Light collapsed to his knees on the bare concrete thankfully, listening to the sound of the door locking behind him. He climbed onto the cot, still feeling slightly light-headed, and eventually fell asleep.

When he woke, he was sure it was morning again. It had been afternoon when he had been arrested, so logically he had slept through the night. He got up and fuzzily made his way over to the wall to tap at the loose brick. "L?"

There was no answer. Light called again, slightly louder, and began to push on the brick. It tumbled out into L's cell, and Light put his eye to the hole and looked around. The cell was empty. They hadn't brought L back. Light went over to sit on the cot, resting his head in his hands and thinking furiously. It... It couldn't be, could it? Kira couldn't have... Light shook his head. They needed L to tell them about Near and the house. They wouldn't have killed him. They couldn't.

xXx

Light was kept in prison for a week, fed at irregular intervals and tormented and interrogated almost as often. One day they stripped him naked and blasted him with scalding steam until his skin was raw and red. They beat him, repeatedly held him underwater, and broke at least two of his ribs. Every time he repeated what he had told them from the beginning. His name was Light Yagami, and he knew nothing about Near or this "Wammy's House".

After a week of torture, he wasn't sure how much more he could take. He couldn't even quit if he wanted to, because they had taken the necklace with the black stone that would get him. home. Again, he wondered if dying counted as failing the Trial.

"Light!"

Light looked up, puzzled. The black-haired boy from the coffee shop, Noir, was standing in the doorway, dressed in the uniform of one of Kira's guards. Aki stood just behind him, staring urgently down the hallway.

"What's going on?" Light asked, confusion mounting. Did these two work for Kira?

"Well, we heard you were here and decided to stop in for a visit..." Noir said, flashing him a grin. Aki elbowed him.

"We don't have a lot of time, incase you've forgotten, _baka_." she said.

Noir rolled his eyes. To Light, he said, "In short, we've infiltrated Kira's building. We work for Near; well, technically we work for Mello, but that's just details... but we're also your guides for this challenge. I, personally, am happy to be your guide. I was a vampire hunter in a past life." He said it proudly, but then looked back over his shoulder uneasily. "You need to get out of here, but you have to save your prize first. That's the first thing we have to tell you. _You have to save your prize._ Third door on the left upstairs. Key." He passed Light a worn metal key. "Nicked it from one of the other guards. They'll notice it's gone soon. Anyway, the second thing we have to tell you is..." He leaned in close, conspiratorially, and whispered, "_Death is a door._ Not for this challenge, but remember it for later." He stood back up, and stepped aside from the door. "Now, go. And don't get caught."

"I can't leave yet!" Light cried. "Kira took something from me, a necklace with a black stone. It's very important!"

Aki smiled faintly, tossing something that glinted over her shoulder. "You'd be surprised what they leave lying around. Now get out of here. We have to go."

Light caught the necklace, slipping it back around his neck and tucking it under his shirt. Noir and Aki turned and hurried away down the hall out of sight. Light smiled faintly. They had been far more helpful than Beyond Birthday and Naomi Misora, that was for sure.

He hurried up the hallway, looking for the stairs that led upward. After being freed from imprisonment by L, he had never had a reason to come back down here, so he didn't know it as well as the rest of the building. He finally found them in a corner, and dashed up them. Third door on the left, Noir had said. He pulled the key out of his pocket as he ran. Save your prize...? What the heck did that mean? But whatever it was, it was in here...

Light swallowed hard to suppress as gasp as he opened the door. Of course! His prize for the whole Trial, not just this challenge. That was what they had meant.

L was seated in a chair in the middle of the room, bound to it hand and foot. His head drooped, and he struggled to look up at Light as he registered the door opening.

Black eyes looked broken and defeated as L said weakly, "Now you have found a way to conjure illusions too, Kira? I still will not speak to you..." Before Light could respond, he muttered, "Or maybe I'm dreaming, or hallucinating again. I really can't tell anymore."

"No, L!" Light cried. "It's really me!" His heart broke as he really took in L, _his L_, tried to a chair like an animal. He hurried to kneel at L's side, beginning to work at the ropes. They weren't tied as tightly as he'd feared. Probably because L was too weak to fight.

L couldn't do anything but fall from the chair into Light's embrace. Light wrapped his arms around him, helping him back to his feet, and could feel how thin L had become.

"He's been starving you." he whispered in astonished horror.

L nodded, just a slight bob of his head. "He thinks that you were sent by Near, to somehow unbalance his empire from within. He doesn't believe me when I say you weren't."

"He didn't believe me either." Light said, pulling L's arm over his shoulders and wrapping an arm around his waist. "Can you walk? We have to get out of here." L nodded again, and they began to make their way back to the door. Light didn't know how they were supposed to get out of the building, but he was damn well going to try, for his sake and L's. But as they stepped over the threshold, L's presence disappeared from his side, and he found himself back in the featureless room. L was sitting on the edge of the small bed in his familiar crouch, and Light realized that he had completed the challenge.

"You're back." L said, looking up. "I didn't think it would be so short of a time."

"How long was I gone?!" Light asked, thinking of his week in confinement.

L tilted his head to one side, puzzled. "An hour, maybe two."

Light blinked. Apparently time was different in this room than in the challenges. He shook his head briefly, and walked over to sit next to L. "Well, do you remember anything?"

"I remember my childhood." L said, blinking. "My parents were killed by burglars when I was six, and then I was shuttled to different orphanages until the age of eight. I never stayed in one for very long. I was either too smart or strange or eccentric for them to handle. When I was eight, a man named Quillish Wammy took me to live with him. He founded an orphanage for gifted children called Wammy's House."

Light stiffened. So the mysterious house had been where L grew up? Maybe the others who lived there were the ones that the other L had called his family.

"I trained to be a detective." L said. He stared down at his feet. "Did I grow up to be a detective?"

Light nodded. "Yeah, you did. The best detective in the world."

"Really?" L asked. "I'm glad."

Light smiled back reassuringly, knowing that L wouldn't be quite so glad if he knew the turn that his last case had taken. He almost dreaded all of L's memories returning, knowing that the detective would likely hate him, once he finally knew the truth.

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Sorry it's been so long! This chapter was hard, and my friend was after my ass for a late submission to a story contest. Being a minion of evil is hard work!

Anyway, so concludes Light's first challenge! Good? Bad? Weird? I'll try to be faster with the next chapter this time. XD

Hugs!  
Li


	8. Human Shinigami

**Human Shinigami**

They spoke for a long time, figuring out exactly what L could remember. His memories seemed to cut off about the time that he began to work on real police cases. Light was now certain in his theory that each challenge he completed would bring back more of L's memories. But with most of his memory still hazy, L was insatiably curious.

"Light-kun?" he asked. Light, sitting against the wall next to the bed, looked up to acknowledge the question. L tipped his head to one side and asked, "How did we get here? I know that you told me I was captured and brought here, but how?"

Light swallowed thickly. Trust L, even an L who hardly knew him, to ask the one question that he _really_ didn't want to answer. He sat silently for a long moment, considering how best to answer without overwhelming L or himself.

"I made a mistake." he whispered. That was the undeniable truth. Knowing L was getting ready to ask another question, he went on quickly, "You were working on a case, the hardest case ever. A criminal that the public called Kira, who killed with the help of a supernatural notebook and a Shinigami."

"Shinigami?" L said skeptically. "But they aren't real."

"They are. You just don't remember. But I made a stupid mistake, and a Shinigami took your soul away. And I came after you." Light said. He hesitated, then, remembering something that L had said to him the night before everything had gone wrong, murmured, "_Ohne sie, ich bin verloren..._"

"You speak German?" L blinked. Light glanced at him.

"No. It's something you said to me once. What does it mean?"

L smiled slightly, and replied, "_Without you, I am lost._ You must have been my best friend, for me to express such a thing. From what I remember of my childhood, I didn't particularly like other people, except for Watari."

_Without you, I am lost..._ What had L said? Something about nightmares; Light kept the nightmares away... The detective, in his odd way, had cared about Light. And Light had worse than killed him, not realizing his own feelings soon enough. If possible, he felt worse than ever.

He scrambled to his feet, saying quickly, "I should go. Who knows how many challenges are left?" L opened his mouth as if to say something, but then simply shut it and nodded. Light turned to face the door out again, and bravely walked over to open it and step through. As soon as he crossed the threshold, everything went black.

xXx

The first thing that returned was sound. Light could hear a little girl crying, and the voice of a young man saying something that he couldn't make out. Feeling returned next, and he realized that he was being held by his upper arm, unable to go anywhere. Last was sight, showing him that he was in a children's playroom, the brunette girl on the floor in front of him was the one crying, and that everyone else was much taller than him.

"It wasn't nice to ruin Linda's drawings."

Light looked up, following the hand that gripped him firmly by the arm to find that it was attached to a young man with bronze hair and grey-green hazel eyes. They locked gazes, and the young man continued, "Do you understand? Promise me you won't do it again."

Light nodded numbly, connecting the crying girl with his chastisement, but not understanding what was going on. The bronze-haired boy released him, and a voice that Light recognized spoke.

"Come on, After, he was just having a little fun!"

Light stared, unnerved at having to look _up_ at Beyond Birthday, as the red-eyed L lookalike giggled. The other boy, who Light assumed was "After", frowned at him.

"Beyond, you know what Roger or Watari would say if they were here."

"But they are here! L just got back today, you know that, right?" Beyond asked, his eyes fixed on a spot somewhere above After's head. "He solved that huge case with the jewel-smuggling ring!"

"I know." After looked away, patted Light on the head absently, and left the room. Beyond giggled demonically, and trailed out after him, leaving Light and Linda. Linda refused to look at him, so he followed the other two, finding himself in a wide hallway. He stared left and right for a moment, having no idea which way to choose, and arbitrarily decided to go left.

xXx

Eventually he ran into other children, who grinned hugely and called, "Come play with us, Mello!"

Light supposed he was supposed to be Mello. "Maybe later; I'm kind of busy right now." Where had he heard the name 'Mello' before? It had been in the other challenge; Noir had said he worked for someone called Mello, who was helping the mastermind, someone called Near...

"You work too hard, Mel! Come on, one game wouldn't hurt!" A red-headed boy broke away from the group and came over to clap him on the shoulder. "Seriously, with all the studying you do..." He trailed off, blinking for a moment before understanding dawned on his features. "On second thought..." He turned back to the other boys, yelling, "Actually, Mel promised to help me with my algebra. I'm out too."

There were groans and complaints from behind them as the redhead grabbed his hand and steered him down another hallway. "I'm Matt." he said as he walked. "And you aren't Mello, are you? We knew you were coming, but not whose guise you'd take first. We just knew it would be one of the kids."

"Matt?" Light felt confused, yet again. Was that the ultimate goal of the Labyrinth, to make him feel stupid?

"Yeah. I'm Mello's best friend. I'll explain everything once we find your other guide." Matt dragged him up the stairs, around several corners that had Light wondering how _big_ this place was, and finally stopped in front of one of the doors that lined the hallway. He began to bang on it, yelling loudly, "OI! NEAR!"

_Near?_

Light wasn't sure what he had expected, but the extremely young-looking child in oversized white pajamas who opened the door wasn't it. The pale, white-haired boy didn't seem much like the leader of a rebellion, but then again he had no idea of the time frame associating each challenge with the present. He could be looking at the past, the future, or an alternate universe altogether. But it was the boy's eyes that got him, impossibly black like L's.

"Matt and Mello." Near said quietly. "Why would you two be looking for me?"

"This is him, Near." Matt said. "The guy we're supposed to help."

Near's large eyes travelled over to stare at Light, and Light felt uncomfortably like the younger boy was staring into his soul, somehow.

"They made him be Mello? Interesting. At least it's only temporary." Near said. "Please, come in." He stepped out of the doorway, and Matt dragged Light into Near's room, shutting the door behind them.

"I promised him I'd explain."

"Of course." Near sat down in the middle of a half-finished castle of legos. "This is Wammy's House."

Light started at the name, which he also recognized from the previous challenge, as well as what L had remembered. Wammy's House, where L had grown up. But what did this have to do with him? This challenge didn't seem like something of his at all.

Near smiled faintly. "I know what you're thinking. But because your prize is someone else's soul, they will test you with that person's nightmares and trials as well. This is L's piece, not necessarily the only one you will face, but the first."

Matt sighed. "You're Mello now, but you'll be L later, and you'll be faced with the same tragedy L was. He got out alive, but this, in a manner of speaking, is your game now. You have to find a way to escape too." He scuffed his shoes on the carpet dejectedly. "It gave you one of the house's worst days to contend with. I wouldn't want to be you right now."

"What's going to happen?" Light asked.

Near shook his head. "We're not allowed to tell you. Otherwise, we'll be taken out of the challenge. You'll have no help then, whether you need it or not."

Unnerved, Light considered. If he had to bet his life on it, he guessed that this had something to do with Beyond Birthday. The illusion in the Sorrow's River had already admitted to being a murderer, and L had been genuinely unhappy the only time that the LABB murder cases had been brought up. Perhaps it would be better to spend the day following Beyond, to see if he could discover what was going to happen.

"If I decide to follow Beyond around, is that a bad idea?" he asked his guides.

Matt shook his head. "He's fond of Mello. They both have that sort of rebelliousness about them, so I doubt he would be annoyed. No one else is supposed to notice if you act any different, so it doesn't matter if you don't behave _exactly_ like the real Mello."

"What can you tell me about Beyond?" Light asked.

Near, oddly enough, smiled. "You already know one important fact about him. Think about it. You know why his eyes are red."

"Red..." Light thought for a second, and gasped, "Shinigami eyes?! Does he have a notebook? Is there a Shinigami attached to him?"

Near shook his head. "He has had these eyes from the moment he was born. No one can explain it, likely not even the Shinigami themselves. But Beyond Birthday is a cruel person, underneath everything."

Light rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it." he said, remembering the first challenge.

Matt grinned. "Come on. If you're determined, we'll go find him."

xXx

Light went with Matt, spending a good portion of the day trailing Beyond around the house. When it became obvious that they weren't going to learn anything useful, the rest of the day, for Light at least, was a second childhood. He played video games with Matt, played soccer outside with some of the other children, and just goofed off. It was the first real fun he had had in a long time. It defied his logic, why a challenge should allow him to have fun, but as Matt pointed out, this was just the buildup. The real challenge began that night.

He showed Light where Mello's room was, and told him to go to bed. The next part would begin when he woke up. Light obeyed, confused but trusting the redheaded gamer to lead him through this.

When he woke, he found himself dozing in front of a computer. Experimentally, he climbed out of the chair. Skinny limbs, black bangs hanging in his eyes, white shirt and jeans, everything was much shorter now... He was L.

He wandered out into the hallway, realizing that he was in a private suite of rooms on the highest floor of the house. He made his way downstairs, wondering what this challenge was that he was supposed to have to face. In reality, L's house didn't seem like the most threatening place on earth. It was a house full of genius children and teenagers, after all. But remembering that Beyond Birthday was among those children and teens, he almost reconsidered.

He found Near and Matt on the third floor, waiting for him.

"There." Near said, pointing to a room down the hall, where light blazed from under the closed door. "You will find your challenge in there."

"We cannot pass the door. That's not how it happened. You will be on your own until the challenge concludes." Matt said. "Good luck."

"Uhh... thanks?" Light turned to face the door, and bravely walked towards it. When he glanced back for support, Near and Matt had vanished down a different hallway. Well, that was encouraging, all sarcasm intended. He carefully pushed the door open, and stepped inside.

The first thing that hit him was the metallic scent of blood, and as he _really_ looked around, he realized that it was everywhere. The walls and floor were splattered in it, making the whole room an eerie, dim red. Light continued to look, horrified, and realized that there was someone lying on the bed. He crept closer, and recognized After from this morning. His wrists were slashed, still oozing blood even though he was obviously dead. A folded piece of paper with the ornate gothic 'L' sat on the side table.

"This was your fault." Light jumped as the door slammed behind him. He whirled to see Beyond Birthday contentedly licking jam from his fingers, before dipping them back into the jar he held. Light repressed a shudder. In this circumstance, it looked far too much like blood.

"This was your fault." Beyond repeated. "I watched the numbers tick down. Read the note he left." He giggled as Light glanced at the paper.

Light picked it up hesitantly, and read in shaky, tear-splotched writing, _I'm sorry, L. I wasn't good enough._ Hurriedly he set it down and turned on Beyond. "You did this! It's a lie!"

Beyond giggled again. "Nope! I admit, the decorations were me..." He gestured to the blood splattered everywhere. "But darling After cut his wrists on his own. He just felt that he couldn't live up to your expectations!" He set the jam jar on the dresser, licking his fingers clean and bending to pick up the knife that Light hadn't seen, lying on the floor by the bed. "A wasn't good enough, and B can't be L if L is still around..."

Light saw what was coming and dodged around him, heading for the door, but Beyond kicked him brutally in the side, slamming him into the wall. It wasn't the graceful kick L had used on him once either, but a harsh kick meant to hurt. It seemed Beyond wasn't a perfect mimic after all. But Light didn't have time to think about that as he was thrown to the floor, and Beyond knelt on his lower back, preventing him from getting up. He felt the back of the white shirt tear under the knife, and Beyond laughed again, sounding ever more deranged.

"I'll prove that I'm better than that useless A!" he said cheerfully. Light hissed in pain as he felt the knife sink into his back and cut, trailing a burning line across his skin. Beyond hummed as he worked, a simple tune that Light almost thought was a worse torture to listen to than the knife skating across his back.

He made a muffled, pained sound into the carpet as the knife cut especially deep, and Beyond giggled. "Does it hurt, L? Do you think it hurt A, when he cut his wrists open?" Light was aware of blood, running down his back to pool on the carpet, mixing with A's blood already there. He bit his lip to keep from screaming, and Beyond sat up from his work.

"I think that will be good enough. Roger and Watari will know how much you endured before you died. But by the time they find you, I'll be long gone!"

Light began to scream in earnest, not words, just a long howl, hoping that someone would hear. Watari, this Roger person, Matt, Near, someone, anyone... His scream was cut off as a bloody sock was stuffed into his mouth, gagging him.

"No, no, no!" Beyond said. "I didn't take you as one to panic, L. That's interesting. Well, it proves you're human like the rest of us." Light sensed, more than saw, Beyond lift the knife high, prepared to plunge it into his heart. In a last desperate, adrenaline-fueled attempt, he twisted violently, throwing Beyond from his back, and scrambled to his feet.

Beyond hit the corner of the desk in the corner, and got up, scowling and rubbing a cut over his eye. "You shouldn't have done that." The playful childishness was gone, and the L doppelganger lunged at him, his eyes gleaming fanatically. Light dodged around the room, throwing whatever he could get his hands on at the murderer, including the bloody sock he pulled from his own mouth. It didn't deter Beyond in the least, and he finally slammed Light into the corner, pressing the knife to where his heart beat.

"Die." Beyond hissed, and Light closed his eyes, but felt Beyond ripped away from him with such force that he stumbled. Watari had kicked in the door and charged the doppelganger, saving Light's life.

Beyond got to his feet, laughing hysterically, and threw the window open, climbing down the stonework of the outside like some sort of huge insect.

"I ordered Roger to close the gates. He won't get out. L, are you okay?" Watari asked.

"I think so." Light whispered. He knew he was still bleeding, and he knew Beyond would get away, but he didn't say so. "Thank you, Watari."

"He would have murdered you, L. Matt and Mello came to get me; they heard screaming."

Light almost smiled, but it turned into a grimace as his back pulled. "Thank them for me, Watari." He walked slowly to the door, knowing what he had to do, and stepped through, feeling the pain vanish. Another challenge complete, and more insight into L's past. Though now, knowing what he had been through, Light felt like he could understand why L was the way he was. Maybe that was the challenges' ulterior motive; to teach him more about the one he loved. But for now, another one was over, and he was one step closer to bringing L home.

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Does that satisfy people's need for torture? XD I love writing sadistic!Beyond.

Another challenge, more memories... Anyone want to give me suggestions for the last challenge? It's not next, but when I get there.... I don't really like the one I wrote down in my notes. Ideas would be wonderful!

As always, enjoy!  
Li


	9. Family Ties

**Family Ties**

Light didn't flinch this time as the world rearranged itself back into the plain grey room. L was sitting on the floor, folding something complicated-looking out of a square of paper, but stopped in surprise when Light walked over without stopping and pulled him to his feet.

"Shirt off, now."

"Light-kun?" L blinked in complete bafflement, but Light ignored him, yanking L's shirt over his head in one smooth motion. L twisted away, but Light grabbed him and whirled him around so that he could see the detective's back.

Scars spread over his back in lazy spirals, and Light's back burned in response, even though it was healed. He pulled L around to face him again, and asked carefully, "Why didn't you tell me?" The scars were faint, just slightly lighter than his skin tone, which explained why Light had never noticed them when they were changing. L was almost always facing him anyway, always watching.

"Tell you what?" L asked, his eyes looking huge and innocent as Light stared at him. The teenager sighed.

"You have scars, spiraling scars on your back." he explained briefly. "What do you remember this time?"

L sat thoughtfully for a moment, then said, "I remember early cases. Watari and I, we started small, building up my reputation gradually. I could solve just about anything, but they wouldn't give me huge cases right off the bat. I also started collecting smaller aliases, to protect my main one as L. Interpol finally started to take notice, after I brought in a small organized group of jewel smugglers in Switzerland. After that..." He trailed off, uncertain, and then admitted reluctantly, "I don't remember. Most of those early cases are too simple to want to discuss, either."

Light hesitated a moment, then said quietly, "Who are Mello, Matt, and Near?"

L tilted his head to one side. "Three children at the house that I was close to. They are like my little brothers. But... why would you ask me that? Did you know them, before I lost my memory? I didn't think I would tell anyone about Wammy's..."

"They were in the last challenge." Light explained. "Matt and Near were my guides. Near is just like you." L nodded.

"I'm proud of all three of them." he said, fiddling with the paper still in his hands. Light glanced at it, seeing it for the first time.

"Where did you get the paper?" he asked, confused.

L was silent for a moment, then said with complete seriousness, "Under the bed."

Light stared at him. "Under the bed." he repeated blankly.

"Yes." L defended. "I was bored, and decided to look under the bed, and I found origami paper."

Light knelt, peering beneath the bed uncertainly. There was nothing under there. He glanced at L quizzically, and L shrugged. "I don't know. It was just there."

Light laughed. "Well, we at least know that the Labyrinth isn't going to bore you to death while I'm doing challenges. We already know that less time passes out here."

L nodded. "Do you have any idea what the rest of the challenges could be?"

Light shook his head. "No." he lied easily. He had an idea, mainly that the Trial would make him face his identity as Kira at some point, but he certainly wasn't going to share that with L. Better to keep L from hating him for as long as possible. He moved to the door, and L called after him, "What would happen if I went with you?"

"I don't know." Light turned back to look at him. "You don't want to have to face what I'm seeing in these things. I had to live as you, while Beyond Birthday tried to kill you."

"Beyond?" L blinked, looking stunned. "Beyond is a little strange, but he would never..."

"He did. He watched After die, and tried to kill you." Light insisted. L looked away, and shook his head.

"He..."

Light frowned. "I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sorry." He walked through the door before L could move to stop him, and once again, everything went black.

xXx

_This is getting old, fast. I like being able to see._

When sight returned, Light found himself sitting in one of the helicopters on the roof, hunched down behind the pilot's seat. He unfolded himself from the cramped position, pushing the door open a crack and peering out. This was L's building, after all. He couldn't possibly be in mortal danger _here..._

Matsuda was coming around the corner, and his eyes widened when he saw Light. He hurried over, whispering urgently, "Light-kun! You have to be careful!"

"What's going on?" Light asked in a rush. He had never seen Matsuda look so worried in the entire time that he had known the man. Matsuda shook his head, and what he said next completely disarmed Light.

"Light-kun, your father is trying to kill you!"

It took a second, but Light was finally able to summon the strangled, "_WHAT?!"_ that such a statement warranted. He stepped from the helicopter to be on the same level as the worrying officer.

"Ryuuzaki found it... He found evidence that you're Kira. Rem helped, Rem told him everything about what had happened between you and Misa..." Matsuda said in a rush. "He told the task force... He wasn't going to tell you, because he thought you'd run, or that you'd kill the task force. He didn't want to risk our lives. But your father... He was so upset..." Matsuda turned to look at Light. "He knows Ryuuzaki's going to give you the Death Penalty. He wants to do it himself; he doesn't want to watch you sent to court, or tried, or convicted. It's L we're talking about, so he would get a conviction..."

"Matsuda, where's my father now?" Light asked. He didn't know what the goal of this challenge was, but he was getting more worried by the second.

"He's combing the building for you." Matsuda said. "I don't know where he is now. I sent you up here to hide." He glanced to one side, then said, "I'm your guide. You have to get to the front door, on street level, to win the challenge."

"Why can't I just take a helicopter?" Light asked.

Matsuda smiled weakly. "For one thing, only Ryuuzaki and Watari know how to fly a helicopter, and they won't help you. I know you could figure it out, but the goal is to find a door, remember? You can't trust anyone on this challenge. Your father wants to kill you, and the others are helping Ryuuzaki, who wants to take you into protective custody. Either way, you can't get to the door."

Light gulped. "So I just have to get to the front door without running into anyone else in the entire building. Easy enough." he said sarcastically.

Matsuda nodded. "I'll help you as much as I'm able. But against Ryuuzaki and your father, I'm not sure how much help I'll be." He half-bowed apologetically.

Light took a deep breath. "Well... We have to try, we can't stay on the roof all day."

Again, Matsuda bobbed his head up and down in agreement. "Do you know where the back stairs are? I can try to lead everyone away from there, and you'll be able to get down most of the stairs before you have to return to the main building."

The back stairs ran from the twenty-second floor, one level before the top, down to the fifth floor. The door was at the end of a seldom-used hallway, past the last empty set of rooms. For all the elaborate work put into L's twenty-three story building, they really only used about six floors. One for the lobby, one for the investigation rooms, one for Misa, one for the task force, one for L and Light, and a private floor with a password on the elevator and all the doors from the stairs that only L was allowed on. This plus the two basements, and all in all they really didn't use much of the building. Light remembered the day that L had shown him the back stairs, which were not much more than the same type of rough concrete steps you would find in a parking deck. L had explained that they were mainly for emergencies, and that there was a door to every floor somewhere along them.

Matsuda blinked, then added in a sudden burst of inspiration, "Oh, yeah! And it would be safer to take the back stairs because there are no cameras!"

"No cameras?" _That_ was something L had never told him. But under the circumstances, he could see why.

"I'll tell them I think you're heading for L's floor, to try to break in." Matsuda said. "You'll have to go fast."

Light nodded. "Thank you, Matsuda." He'd never really thought of any of the officers his father worked with as friends, but now, he thought that maybe Matsuda wasn't as dumb as he sometimes appeared. He set off for the door to the back stairs, wondering how long he'd be able to avoid every police officer in the building.

xXx

The back stairs were silent, compared to everywhere else. There was absolutely no sound save for his own echoing footsteps as he took the stairs two at a time. Light was in a hurry, and he wasn't going to stop for anything at this point.

And then he stopped. There were voices coming from lower on the stairs, heading upwards towards them. He strained to make out what they were saying, and faintly heard Aizawa commenting, "It might be Mogi... He was looking upstairs..."

Light glanced around frantically, and hurried out the nearest door. He was only on the twelfth floor. Not quite where he needed to be, but it would work for the moment. The investigation room was on this floor, but there shouldn't be anyone in there now.

He hurried to the steel door, which was designed to lock down in emergencies, and paused when he heard voices from the other side. He heard a low, familiar voice that belonged to Ryuuzaki, as well as his father's voice. It sounded like they were arguing.

"He is MY son, and I will decide his punishment, both as chief of police and his father!" Chief Yagami was shouting. Light cracked the door just enough to see both standing illuminated by the light of the computers.

L held up a hand. "I am not denying that you are his father, Yagami-san, but since Light-kun is Kira we have to assume that he is potentially dangerous. And because his crimes extend beyond this building or even this city, it is my responsibility to take him before Interpol for trial." Before the Chief could reply, he continued, "I understand that you are distressed. Anyone would be so, knowing that their son is a mass-murderer. Watari would be heartbroken if I were to do such a thing."

"He's my son…" Chief Yagami repeated, seeming not to have listened to L's explanation at all. "My son, and I will deal with this myself!" He moved towards L, and L, not expecting the Chief to physically attack him, was a split-second too slow to avoid the gun. It struck him in the side of the head, and he dropped to the floor, unconscious.

"L!" Light gasped before he could stop himself. He locked eyes with his father as Chief Yagami looked up, and mentally sighed. He just knew that this challenge wasn't going to let him escape without confronting the older man. Pushing the door open the rest of the way, he stepped into the room, and said quietly, evenly, "Hi, Dad."

The gun was pointed at him in less than a moment, and Chief Yagami said tightly, angrily, "Light… I honestly believed that I raised you better. To kill so many people… As your father, it's my responsibility to…"

"To what?" Light said, reining in his temper before it got his head blown off. "To knock out the man who is the greatest detective in the world, as well as your superior? Ryuuzaki is following the justice system, but you…" It hurt him to say it, but he finished, "This is vigilantism, no better than Kira."

"_You are Kira!_" Chief Yagami roared. "Do not preach to me about vigilantism!"

"I know I'm wrong!" Light shouted back. "Ryuuzaki showed me; I was wrong to do the things that I did! He tried so hard to save me, and now it's my turn to save _him_!"

As it turned out, he dodged just in time, as his father fired the gun. A bullet hole appeared in the wall two feet from the steel door, and Light stared with wide eyes at the smoking gun. It hadn't sunk in until that moment. His father was really trying to kill him this time. And he was here, with no backup and an unconscious L, facing him alone. Light wondered briefly where his genius prodigy mind had gone, and disregarded the thought in favor of analyzing the gun. It was a typical handgun, six bullets in the round, the one in the chamber already fired. If he could dodge six more bullets…

He might make it out of this alive.

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(roll eyes) Seriously, Light... You've become quite the risk-taker. XD

Sorry it's been so long. School, you know. But I hope to be more regular about updates after this. I promise!

Hugs!  
Li


	10. Russian Roulette

**Russian Roulette**

It took willpower to take a life. To actually stand and watch someone die from an action that you took towards them. Light realized suddenly how unfair the Death Note was, because he knew he didn't have the mindset of a murderer. A name written on a page was much less destructive to someone's mental state than a knife between someone's ribs or a bullet through their heart. Light hadn't believed that his father possessed that willpower either, until now. Now that the man stood, police-issued gun trained on Light's heart.

He took a cautious step into the no-man's land that separated them, moving towards the prone form of the World's Greatest Detective, who had been viciously knocked unconscious. He watched a muscle in his father's hand twitch, and stopped where he was.

"I want to make sure he's okay."

Chief Yagami growled. "You have no right, _Kira._" It hurt to have the alias spit at him like a curse, but Light refused to show weakness. Someone wound as tightly as his father would snap at the first opportunity.

"He's my friend."

"You tried to _kill_ him."

"…I know." Light held up his hands. "And I regret that." He took another step forward, and froze when the gun went off again, the bullet-hole smoking in the carpet next to his foot. His heart pounded, but he couldn't help but think gratefully, _five_. There were only five bullets left.

"Dad…" he began, trying to appeal to Chief Yagami's better nature, but was immediately interrupted.

"_You are no son of mine!_" The shout was harsh, and Light flinched. He immediately abandoned that line of action, turning his mind to finding a way out that didn't involve being shot in the back. Because that was what would happen if he turned to run for the door. Carefully, he began to edge backwards towards the door, uncertain how close he was. He had to wait to break and run, or his escape would be over before it began.

Glancing frantically around the room, he noticed L's eyelids flutter, ever so slightly. The detective's eyes opened to slits, and he gestured faintly with one foot. Light got the meaning immediately. If he were to run, L would trip his father, doing what he could to keep Light from getting shot. He continued to shuffle backwards, barely moving his feet, and praying that he would get out of this mess alive.

_None of my guides have ever bothered to tell me if I lose the Trial if I die. None of my guides have told me what happens if I win a challenge the wrong way. Surely, I could wrestle the gun away and shoot him. But would that count against me? I could use L to get out, but if he is shot and killed, that could affect my victory as well. There are too many potential situations that I don't know about._

Light took a huge step, almost a leap, back. He shifted in mid-step to face forward, diving into the carpet as the gun went off again. The bullet whizzed over his head. _Four_. He began to crawl for the door, vaguely aware out of the corner of his perception of L swinging his heel into Chief Yagami's knee, causing the man to crumple to the floor.

Light was on his feet and sprinting before he heard his father hit the ground. He hoped his father was sane enough not to shoot L by accident, but he wasn't sticking around to find out. It wasn't the detective that the Chief wanted to kill.

xXx

On the inner stairs, the main stairs that they used, he flew down the steps two at a time. It was a feat he never would have been able to accomplish if he had actually been thinking about what he was doing, but instinct took over and he simply ran. When he reached the stairs to the first floor, he was astonished that he hadn't seen any of the other police. Matsuda must be doing a good job of keeping them busy.

As he stepped into the foyer of the building, he couldn't help but smile with relief at the sight of the glass doors only twenty feet away. That was the end; it led to safety and another piece of L's memory being returned to him. He broke into a run, determined to reach the door, and bit back a scream as pain seared through his knee. He hadn't even heard the shot.

_Three_. He thought the number on reflex as he tumbled to the ground. Rolling over, he was faced with the horrifying sight of the Chief, who had apparently taken the elevator, advancing on him with the gun still smoking from the bullet that had disabled him. Light stared down the barrel of the gun, realizing with growing dread that he was about to be murdered by his own father. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the shot that would end him, and distantly heard the gun go off.

There was no pain. Maybe he was already dead. But then there was a second gunshot, and Light opened his eyes to see his father staggering backwards, blood streaming from his shoulder and the hand that had previously held the gun. He looked around the room frantically, and to his great astonishment, spotted Matsuda.

The normally-bumbling officer wore a look of deadly seriousness, his own gun still in his hands. Light gaped at him, wondering if Matsuda had lost his mind too. Matsuda put the gun back in its holster, hurrying to Light and helping him stand upright. "We don't have much time."

The serious tone caught Light by surprise. "Time for what?"

"I've broken the rules." Matsuda said. "I wasn't supposed to interfere. You had to figure it out on your own. But I want you to win." Pulling Light's arm over his shoulder, he began to help him limp towards the doors. "We have to hurry, because they'll take me out of the Trial for helping you like this."

Near and Matt had said something similar during the nightmare with Beyond Birthday. Neither had been willing to break the rules to help him, because they knew at that point that they would be needed later. This was the end, and obviously Matsuda was more willing to bend the edicts of the challenge.

"Thank you…" Light whispered, biting his lip against the pain in his knee. Matsuda nodded determinedly, and kept pushing forward.

They were only three feet from the door when Matsuda stopped with a gasp. Light glanced at him, only to cry out in surprise as he watched the officer fading out like a ghost.

"Good luck, Light!" Matsuda said brightly, before disappearing entirely. Light wobbled on his injured knee, and began to inch carefully towards the door. He reached for the handle, using it to support himself, and yanked it open. Instead of Tokyo's streets, he saw the familiar grey room. The pain disappeared as he crossed the threshold, and he was able to stand normally once again. He was grateful to the Trial for not accumulating his injuries, at least. That would add a level of difficulty that he might not be able to overcome.

He was prepared for L to bombard him with more questions about what the latest challenge had been, but when he looked, he saw L wrapped in the blanket from the bed, hunched over, his hair shadowing his ink-colored eyes. As Light watched, he noticed a single tear fall from where L's eyes would be, spotting the blanket.

"L?" He took a step forward, worried, and L looked up quickly. His eyes were rimmed in red, and Light could tell that he was suffering. "L, what's wrong?"

"You were right…" L whispered, his voice broken. "You were right… about Beyond, and everything."

Light's eyes widened. "What… What do you remember?"

L sniffled unhappily. "I remember the detective war that I waged with Erald Coil and Daneuve. I won, and I took their aliases. I remember the world-wide jewel-smuggling ring that I brought in after chasing them for months on end. And… I remember A's death, and the LABB case." He shuddered. "You were right. Everything that you said. The scars, and A's death… A's death was my fault. He shouldn't have been under so much pressure. I should have been there more, and I could have stopped it from happening…"

"It wasn't your fault." Light insisted. You had no way of knowing what was going on."

"I should have!" L cried. "It was my home; they were my children! After Always believed he wasn't good enough, and I wasn't there to give him any reason to think otherwise!"

Light knelt, taking a chance and reaching under the bed. His hand contacted a rectangular box, and he pulled the box of tissues from under the bed with a faint smile. Those tissues had _not_ been there before. He sat down beside L, setting the tissues in the detective's lap and wrapping his arms around the skinny body.

"After made a choice." Light said. "He chose to die, rather than seeking you out to speak to you. Beyond made a choice to attack you, and to become a criminal." _I made the choice to be Kira._ "None of these things was your fault."

L was silent for a long time, leaning into Light's hug. When he finally did speak, he said only, "There were worse criminals. Criminals far more brutal and sadistic. Criminals who were so twisted that not even I could look at the tapes without flinching. But out of every case that I solved, the LABB case was the hardest to deal with. One successor dead, one burned beyond recognition and imprisoned for life…" He sighed. "It was after that when I made a determined effort to get to know Mello, Near, and Matt, to make sure that nothing like that ever happened again."

He fell silent after that, and Light simply sat and held him, thinking. L had a much more complicated past than even he had imagined. L had a home, a family, kids who adored him… Unwittingly, his thoughts turned to the next challenge, wondering what the Trial could possibly throw at him now. How many more of these things were there? He focused for a moment on the black stone, still on its cord, tucked under his shirt. If he took L now, and returned to the living world, would L simply have no memories of anything after the LABB case? Because if his hypothesis was correct, the next memories L regained would be the beginning of the Kira case. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad; he could make up a story about his suspicion being lifted…

But that would be cheating, he was sure. He had to see this through all the way to the end. No matter what the outcome would be.

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Light! Thinking of cheating Death? You bad boy. XD

Sorry its been so long. School ate my life and spit out the crumpled pieces into band competition weekend. I'm going to try for more regular updates, but I'm not promising anything right now.

So Matsuda gets his Crowning Moment of Awesome, even though it wasn't Light that he shot. It's the coolest thing Matsuda ever does. I had to put it in here somewhere. ^_^

Next chapter, we go back to another L-inspired nightmare, and see a few familiar faces...

Happy...(checks calendar) ... October 7!  
Hugs!  
Li


	11. L's Nightmares

**L's Nightmares**

After a while, Light finally noticed that the skinny detective had fallen asleep against him. He had lost track of how much time was passing in this room as opposed to during the challenges, and figured that it was probably best for L. Crying usually made people sleepy, after all. Shifting the slender raven-head carefully, he was able to get him into bed and under the blankets without waking him.

He stood there for a long moment, staring down at the one person he had ever fallen in love with. His prize, to put it as poetically as Noir had. But it was clear that L meant something to him, or he wouldn't be putting himself through this hellish Trial for a detective who wanted to give him the death penalty. Light sighed. He didn't know how much more of this there was, but he could only hope that it would be over soon. For L's sake as well as his own.

He turned to face the door once again, hesitating this time. Every challenge he completed brought him a step closer to restoring all of L's memory. But L would hate him once he remembered that Light had been Kira. Maybe not this challenge, but the one after that, or even the one beyond that one, would bring back that damning piece of memory that would seal Light's doom.

"Heh… I'm damned no matter what I do." he murmured to himself. "Either I take him back now, and let him be angry when he speaks to the task force and learns that I didn't tell him, or I finish restoring his memory, and risk having him hate me for what I did to him." _I love him, no matter how unhealthy it is for me. It's my fault he's like this. I owe him…_

He opened the door, stepping through and finding himself in a long, plain white hallway. Suddenly bare feet made him recoil a bit on the cold tile floor, and as he took in his outfit and self, he realized that he again wore L's guise. He didn't recognize the place he had been dropped into, but if it was like the last round he had played against L's demons, he would find out soon. He began to make his way along the white hallway, keeping an eye open for anything odd.

He emerged into a large area, and finally realized where he was. He was in a prison. There were cells all around him, three stories high, most filled with criminals who jeered as they noticed him. Light felt rage rush into him, filling him with angry red. _This_ was why he had used the Death Note; become Kira. Scum like this didn't deserve to live, being taken care of in jail. _They deserved death for the crimes they committed!_

Light stiffened, catching himself before that thought could develop any farther. No. He was free of the Death Note. He was giving it up. Giving it up for L. Holding his head high and keeping the image of the innocent, sleeping detective in his mind, he walked through the center area quickly and entered another hallway. This one ended at a large, solid door with a plaque on it reading, "Warden". Light hurried over and tried the door, finding it unlocked. He peered inside hesitantly, and found it empty.

There was a thunderstorm raging outside the small windows. As Light hesitated in the doorway, a particularly large bolt of lightning struck somewhere nearby. Thunder crashed, startling the former murderer, and the power went out.

The emergency lights kicked in a few minutes later, but it was too late. From the whooping and cheering he could hear from the direction of the area behind him, the cell doors had unlocked when the power blipped out. Criminals were fleeing the building eagerly.

Light turned at the sound of footsteps coming his way, but two men merely ran by the warden's door without stopping. It was the third, who stopped in the doorway a moment before coming in, that Light recognized.

"L-san." the man said, nodding to him. He smiled when Light blinked at him dumbly. "You do not recognize me, Yagami Light?"

"Tailor." Light said faintly. "Lind L. Tailor." Another familiar face from times past. Tailor was part of his nightmares just as much as L's.

"Yes, the criminal whose only crime was to have too many Ls in his name." Lind laughed. He looked just like he had on TV, in those moments before he collapsed. Ink-blank hair fell to his shoulders, and dark eyes focused intently on Light. It was startling, with the hindsight he now possessed, how much Lind actually did resemble L; an L who got more sleep and took better care of his hair.

"What's so funny?" Lind asked.

Light abruptly realized he was grinning like an idiot, and promptly looked more serious. "Nothing. What is the challenge this time?"

Lind sighed. "This prison is not a real place. All of the other locations have been pulled from real life; this prison was constructed from nightmares, to house the worst criminals that L has ever captured. The lesser criminals have fled, but the worst, those who have sworn blood and worse upon the head of the detective to capture them, remain."

Light looked down at his own appearance. "I… don't like where this is going."

Lind nodded. "Unfortunately, your goal is to find the door that will lead you out of here without getting mauled by those criminals." He frowned. "There's a clue if you can get to the security guard's office. Inside is a list of who was in which cell. You'll have to figure out which one you need."

"Thank you." Light hesitated a moment, then asked, "L said that you were a criminal on Death Row. What… what did you do?"

"I was a murderer." Lind said matter-of-factly, unperturbed. "I considered it a challenge, especially when they sent the great L after me. Fifteen people, I killed, so it was a case worthy of his attention. He outwitted me, or I wouldn't be here, but I had great respect for him. So when he asked me to go on TV, potentially risking my life, I couldn't help but agree after hearing the challenge he was going to offer you. If he could flirt with death on live television, I could too. And in the end, he did get a clue, right?"

"Yeah…" Talking to him, Lind didn't seem like a bad person. If he hadn't openly admitted to being a murderer, Light might have actually liked him.

Lind shooed him in the direction of the main area of the prison. "The security guard's office is on the opposite side of this floor. I'll try to get it unlocked before you get there, and I'll do what I can to hold the others off." Light nodded in understanding, taking off at a run.

xXx

It didn't take long for him to return to the main room, where all the cells were standing open, the criminals inside gone. Light slowed his run to a walk, warily looking around. If Lind was telling him the truth, then some of the worst scum of the earth was waiting for him, prepared to maim, kill, or worse. And he looked like the person they hated most in the entire world.

He stuck to the edges of the room, creeping stealthily, hoping no one would hear him. But he was out of luck, as footsteps rounded the corner. He looked to see who was there, and a well-dressed man with European-looking features stepped into his view.

The dark-haired man nodded courteously. "L."

"Who…?" Light began, then remembered that he was supposed to know who these criminals were.

The man frowned. "You've forgotten me, L? That's a shame." His voice grew sharp. "Antoine Renault, the leader of the Swiss jewel-smuggling ring. That's who I am."

"The case before After died…" Light whispered. He took a step back, saying, "I didn't forget. I know so many criminals, it took me a moment."

Renault frowned, but then a spiky smile slowly emerged on his face. "Perhaps it will jar your memory when I call the others and allow them their way with you. It will be far more entertaining to watch them hurt you." The smile grew wider. "Some of them have simply _terrible_ things they would like to do…"

He turned to call for whoever was waiting in the wings, and Light lunged forward, punching him in the face as hard as he could. Renault stumbled back, and Light leaned and swept his foot up in a powerful kick that he didn't realize he knew how to do. Apparently there were benefits to sharing L's guise. The jewel smuggler slammed into the wall and slumped, unconscious. His head had hit the concrete with enough force to knock him out.

Light took off running, heading in the vague direction of the security guard's office. He had to figure out which of these doors was the right one, before he ran into someone more dangerous than Renault.

When he found the office marked "Security", he tried the doorknob immediately. True to his word, Lind had gotten the door unlocked, and Light hurried in, finding the record book on the desk. He flipped through the pages, seeing name after name and cell number after cell number written in plain black ink. How was he supposed to know which one was the right one? Would he see someone he recognized…?

He flipped frantically through the book, listening for any sound of movement outside that could clue him in if someone was sneaking up on him. There were still others, according to Renault, and he didn't want to be trapped in this little room of they decided to show up. One final page turned, and there was a number written in gold instead of black, shiny gold like one of those ridiculous gel pens his sister liked to use. Without being told, he knew that gold was L's color, and he read the name and number slowly to himself to memorize it, because if he forgot he would be doomed. There would be no returning here a second time.

"Daikoku." It didn't sound like a name, not a person's name, at least. Light followed the line over, reading the number that matched the name. "128. Cell 128." If he had counted correctly, that would be on the third floor. He couldn't risk an elevator, so he would have to find some stairs. He closed the record book, returning to the door and peering out cautiously. Everything looked clear, and he crept into the hall, glancing at a sign near the ceiling that indicated stairs were down a nearby hallway. Perfect.

xXx

The stairs were completely normal stairs, and it didn't take long to climb the two flights to the third floor. He opened the door at the top, glancing around before walking out. If he had a mirror, he'd be using it to look around corners. It was unnerving that he hadn't seen anyone since punching out Renault. He began to follow the numbers up the hall, but froze when he realized that there was a wall of people blocking his way.

He turned to run, but there were people behind him, too. They had been lurking up ahead and in the corners of cells on either side, waiting for him to show up. And now, they stood between him and his goal, cutting off all forms of escape.

The crowd parted to reveal Renault, nursing a bruised cheekbone, and two younger men. One was barely more than a teenager, probably Light's own age, while the other seemed to be in his twenties.

"L." the older of the two grinned. When Light only looked at him blankly, he sighed dramatically. "Perhaps you need a refresher of who we are. I am the Black Dealer, Drevan Ricter, infamous bio-terrorist."

Light recognized the name. Drevan Ricter had been convicted for attempting to unleash a virus five times as deadly as the Black Plague. He was one of those nihilistic people who wanted to wipe out a majority of the human race. He had been playing God, _just like Light had been._

The youngest was talking now. "I'm Genesis. Gabriel Genesis. They named me the Pied Piper!"

Light remembered him too, a hypnotist who worked with music to lull his victims into committing suicide. He involuntarily took a step back, staring down those two and the other people surrounding him, all of which were likely murderers and rapists of the worst kind.

_Now_ he felt worried.

"In a way, you're lucky." Drevan said, smiling poisonously. "After all, Beyond Birthday is dead, and he would have tortured you much longer than we will."

Light's eyes widened, and he scanned the group, looking for an escape route. After careful thought, he darted forward between Drevan and Genesis, aiming a kick at the nearest thug behind them. He had to get through. He had to get to Cell 128.

An impossibly high-pitched noise streaked through the space, assaulting Light's ears horribly. His muscles locked, and he fell to the ground mid-kick, unable to move. He realized that every one of the criminals had clapped hands over their ears, and he was the only one attacked by the sound.

Genesis knelt beside him, smiling innocently. "At certain levels of sound, higher than human hearing, the sound disrupts brain function enough to cause temporary paralysis. Convenient, ne?" Drevan was chuckling wickedly in the background. Genesis patted Light on the head. "Don't worry, Detective. It will only hurt a lot!"

That was when Light realized…

He was completely screwed.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Ohmigod I finally got this done. Life has been killing me these past few weeks! No time on the computer, school work... Not good excuses, I know, but at least the chapter is finished. More familiar faces! Kekekeke... Poor Light. I'm getting deja-vu here! ^.^

A virtual cookie and plushie of Genesis if you can tell me the significance of the name and number of the cell! I have such fun with these little details.

Hope you enjoy! NaNoWriMo started yesterday, so the next chapter might take me a while. I will hit 50,000 this year!

Hugs!  
Li


	12. PuppetMaster

**Puppet-Master**

Genesis held up his flute, smiling. Light could practically feel every criminal that stood around them hold their breath in anticipation. He was genuinely freaked out, this time. He had no idea what Genesis was planning, and with his hypnosis abilities, he could make Light do anything.

"I think…" the teenaged murderer mused, grinning psychotically, "I think I'll leave off the literal hypnosis. It's no fun if you're not consciously aware of what's happening to you. I know the perfect song!"

Sprawled on the floor, still immobile, Light could do nothing as Genesis raised his flute, beginning to play. The notes got stronger and stronger as the song continued, and Genesis nodded at Drevan. The other murderer walked over behind Light, reaching out and grasping at air before pulling sharply upwards. Light felt himself rise up off the floor, standing without any effort on his part, tugged along like a puppet on strings. And Drevan seemed all too willing to play puppet-master. Drevan grinned, pulling on nothing, this way and that, and Light felt his arms and legs responding without his consent.

"Dance for us, detective!" Drevan laughed, whipping the invisible puppet strings around, causing Light to do a kind of awkward pirouette in place. The criminals surrounding them laughed as well, and the puppet-master yanked all of the strings outwards, leaving Light standing open in the middle of the hallway, unable to defend himself.

xXx

It was only the first few that hurt, really. After a while, his nerves became almost deadened to the pain, as murderers and rapists and the rest of the crowd took turns beating him, punching, kicking, anything to cause pain. His left eye had long since swollen shut, and blood from a cut in his head was running into his right eye, but he had no control to wipe it away.

Genesis wandered over, wiping at the blood with his sleeve in a mockingly kind gesture. He stepped back, and Light saw another criminal come forward, this one taller than him and heavily muscled, grinning with sick enjoyment. He reached out, taking Light's left hand, wrapping one huge hand around his fingers and yanking them backwards.

Light screamed as he felt his fingers break, felt the bones splintering beneath the iron grip. He wanted to die, he honestly, genuinely wanted to die, anything to make the pain stop. Out of the corners of his awareness he realized that that had been the last criminal, and Drevan came forward, a knife in one hand. With the other, he tugged at the invisible puppet-strings, forcing Light to his knees. He manipulated them more carefully after that, making the barely-conscious teenager lean forward, resting his hands on the concrete floor, fingers spread. It was agony to move the broken ones, but he had no choice in the matter.

Drevan knelt beside him, resting the knife lightly where his pinky and ring fingers met his right hand. "You seem like you need something to wake you up. A short, sharp shock should do it." Light had just enough time to realize what he was going to do, opening his mouth in a hoarse shriek as Drevan pressed down on the knife. The blade went straight through, and Light could feel the sickening sensation as tendons and muscles were sliced, as bones were pried apart. He wanted to be sick, and he would have collapsed had he been allowed, but instead hung limp, the perfect puppet.

Drevan handed the knife off to Genesis, who giggled. "I do so love knives. They're so much fun! And so _easy_." The young murderer tossed the knife into the air, watching it spin before catching it by the hilt. "I think… that we should watch you do this." The assembled crowd of criminals jeered and laughed, and Genesis placed the knife in Light's ruined right hand, forcing him to grip it with only three fingers.

His hand was a dull, deep, throbbing ache, almost invisible under the searing sharp pains from elsewhere on his body. He saw Genesis lift his flute, and begin to play once again.

He fought the command in the music, but was unable to stop himself from lifting the knife, pressing it to his left wrist for a moment before dragging it up his arm, opening the vein to stain the floor with red. Genesis was laughing, unable to play anymore, and Light collapsed to the floor, finally free to fall.

He barely heard the footsteps coming, someone elbowing their way through the crowd. Then he heard Lind's voice over the din.

"The police are coming!" Lind was saying frantically. "We need to guard the doors, or figure out a way out of here, if we don't want to be locked up again."

"Find something with which to barricade the doors!" Drevan ordered. Criminals began to file away, hurrying to ward off the police. Drevan and Genesis glanced down at Light, who was cradling his arm to his shirt to try to stop the blood flowing from his sliced vein, and exchanged a look.

"He'll die soon." Drevan said, turning away. "No point in watching."

Genesis waved. "Goodbye, Detective!" Both hurried off, and Lind motioned to the hallway beyond Light.

"You'll die unless you reach the cell. If I stay, they'll come back, though. I cannot help you any farther. I'm sorry. Good luck, Yagami Light." He hurried away, to keep the others away long enough for Light to escape the challenge. Light felt a flare of disappointment, but he supposed that underneath everything, Lind was still a criminal. And L was the detective who put him in prison, and Light was the one who killed him. It was double the reason to want to see him suffer.

He forced himself to his feet, biting his lips until they bled as well, trying to keep himself from crying out at the pressure on his wounded right hand. His left arm he kept pressed to his stomach, broken fingers dangling uselessly, well aware that L's customary white shirt was being stained bloody crimson. He was beginning to feel light-headed.

He stumbled down the hall, barely able to make out the numbers above the cells now. 114, 115, 116… He was going the right way. He continued on, his vision blurring into black at the edges. He couldn't pass out now! Not when he was so close!

123, 124, 125… He dashed down the last few feet, more of a stumble than a run, and stopped at cell 128. Curling the three remaining fingers on his right hand through the bars, he tugged, feeling the door give. At that moment, the world spun, and his eyes rolled up in his head. He fell forward and knew no more.

xXx

When he awoke, he realized he was back in the grey room, tucked into the bed that L had been occupying the last time he had seen the skinny detective. He sat up, looking around, and spotted L sitting against the far wall, watching him. He started to stand, and spotted something he hadn't seen in L's eyes in a while.

Mistrust.

That was when the detective chose to speak. One single word. A name. A title. An accusation.

"Kira."

Light flinched visibly. He got up, crossing the room in a few steps, and L stood as well, tense. Light stared into impossible black-magic eyes, and whispered, "L, please, you have to listen…"

"You're a murderer." L said bitterly. "You're a murderer; you said you were my friend, but Kira wants to kill me. Is that how I got here? Did you _kill me_?"

_Worse._ Light thought, but didn't speak it out loud. Instead, he said, "You only suspected me. You don't remember everything yet. Please, please don't jump to conclusions until the end. I know you want to look for the answers and solve things, but the answers will come back with your memories. I swear. Trust me, L." The suspicious look didn't go away, and Light added desperately, "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't be trying so hard to bring you back."

This the detective could not argue with, and he nodded reluctantly. "I… will continue to trust you, Light. At least until… I remember something to the contrary."

Light breathed a sigh of relief. He had dodged one bombshell, but how many more would he be able to avoid? L would remember what Light had done to him eventually, and that would be the end of him.

But what was there to do but go on? His sense of self-preservation was telling him to quit now, before something happened that he regretted. But his conscience wouldn't let him leave without L.

L informed him that he had been asleep for a long time, so he figured it would be best to get on with the next challenge as soon as possible. Staring at L, each trying to measure what the other was thinking, he reached for the door, thankfully with all five fingers, and stepped through once again. Endgame was getting nearer, but at what cost?

* * *

Lind, you failure. You could have done _something_.

Oh well. Shorter chapter for you guys this time, since I'm 9435 words into NaNoWriMo and am so far behind it isn't even funny. T.T But yeah. I love Genesis. He's such a little psycho. But then again, being a reincarnated Shinigami does that to a person.

...I guess this is just a whole massive spoiler for Sinfonia if people haven't read that yet. Damn. XD

Hugs!  
Li


	13. What Might Have Been

**What Might Have Been**

It was a small, square cell that he found himself in, not unlike the one he had just left in the last challenge. He got up from the cot he had been sitting on, walking to the steel door and pushing on it halfheartedly. It didn't open, and he realized that he was locked in.

He checked himself over next and verified that he was himself for this challenge. Whether it was past, present, or future was yet to be seen, but really, what was the _point_? Was the Trial now attempting to bore him to death, since Beyond Birthday, fifty hardened criminals, and his own father hadn't been able to do the job?

Light knew that being locked up in a cell was partly psychological. People with claustrophobia, isolophobia or autophobia, or a fear of simply being locked away and forgotten… Even if it was a deeply buried fear, a prison like this could draw it out. But Light _liked_ enclosed spaces; when he was younger he could often be found in the stairwell, or a closet, or an elevator, if there happened to be one of those around. Small places usually helped him think. But this one made him uneasy, because it gave off the bitter feeling of something being wrong. Horribly, terribly, wrong.

xXx

He wasn't sure how long he stayed in the cell. There were no windows, and he had no way to tell time. His watch had mysteriously vanished when he entered this challenge, but there was no way the times would have matched anyway. He felt his stomach growl irritably, and to distract himself, he pondered how strange it was that he only felt hunger during a challenge. The grey room that L inhabited seemed to be a place out of time, where such things didn't matter.

His stomach growled again, and he glared down at it in annoyance. Distracting, hunger was. He needed to figure out what was going on.

Thankfully, fortune seemed to be on his side for once, and there was the sound of the cell door being unlocked. The first thing to come through was a small cart on wheels, and on it were dishes filled with all of Light's favorite foods. His eyes widened with astonishment. Hibachi chicken, fried rice and vegetables, miso soup… A pot of coffee sat in one corner. But even more surprising than the food was the person pushing the cart.

It was L.

Light bit his tongue to keep from asking what was going on. This L was part of the illusion, and if he asked the wrong thing…

"Good evening, Light-kun." L said, having left the cart and retrieved a chair from somewhere outside the door. He put the chair across from Light, who was still sitting on the cot. "Are you well?"

"As well as I can be, locked up like this." Light grumbled. "If I'm locked up, you obviously still think I'm Kira." He played a daring card, hoping he was saying the right thing. "What's with the fancy dinner, L? I didn't know you treated all of your prisoners so nicely."

"It's not becoming of you to play dumb, Light-kun." L said, the pleasant tone never leaving his voice. "You know that they always make those about to be executed on Death Row a wonderful last meal. Whatever they ask for."

Light's stomach felt like it dropped out from under him, like he was going over the tallest hill of the biggest roller coaster he'd ever seen in his entire life. He was certain he was white as a sheet, but L didn't react, picking up a fork and taking a bite of his own dinner.

"And I asked for… this?" Light asked, fighting to keep his voice its usual poised-sounding baritone.

L smiled faintly. "No. You didn't. You merely stated that you wanted a meal with real food that I would actually eat with you. I went back and researched your favorite foods."

It took every ounce of Light's steadily-fraying willpower not to gape at the detective who could say something so calmly, with no trace of anything other than the normal, faintly interrogating tone. It took just a little bit more to pick up his own fork and actually begin to eat, though every bite made him feel like being sick. He wasn't hungry anymore.

They didn't talk much during the meal, though Light stared in utter astonishment as L drank a mug of black coffee, nothing in it, just as Light made his. The nasty little voice in the back of his mind pointed out helpfully, _Well, what does it matter to him? It's one cup of coffee; one cup of coffee to make you 'feel better' before you die!_

The thought actually made his stomach lurch, and he put the fork down uneasily. He had almost managed to finish his dinner, enough to where it wouldn't look suspicious if he didn't eat any more.

L straightened the dishes, getting up and moving the chair back into the hallway before returning for the cart. He reached out, touching Light on the shoulder to get the distracted boy's attention, and said quietly, "I will see you in the morning, Light-kun. I am here under 'orders' from 'L' to watch over the proceedings."

Light stared at him blankly for a moment, then nodded. L was pretending to be someone who worked for L. He did that all the time, in retrospect.

The skinny detective pushed the cart out the door, then turned back to look at the teenager, who was sitting on the cot, pale as a ghost, head in his hands and just beginning to shake slightly.

"Light-kun, you received a hint from the black. You were told to remember it for later." L murmured. "It is now later." Then he was gone, and Light was left alone. The small space wasn't comforting anymore. Now it seemed like the walls were looming over him, pressing in from all directions and he wanted to scream but he _**couldn't**_…

He didn't know what nonsense L was spewing about a hint from the black. It was probably something that his self for this challenge was supposed to remember, and he didn't. But he didn't know how he was going to get out of here now. If this was truly Death Row, truly a prison, there would be guards everywhere to prevent desperate escapes. He had no chance.

_Does dying count as failing the Trial?_ He had never managed to ask that question. And it seemed that his guide for this challenge was nowhere to be found. He would have to face this alone.

Completely alone.

xXx

Light didn't sleep. He tried, knowing that it would be better than worrying and would make the night pass faster. But sleep never came, and morning found him as wide-eyed and haunted as ever.

The cell was unlocked, and two guards came in, handcuffing him and leading him out into the hallway. L was waiting, a melancholy expression on his childish face, and Light looked away. L sighed, and they made their way in silence down the hallway, to a room where a chair not unlike a dentist's was waiting. Curtains were drawn over one wall, and Light knew that there were windows, to let witnesses watch him die.

L was conversing quietly with the guards, and from the conversation, which was in English, Light learned that they were in England, Interpol representatives were present, and _no, damn it_ L was _not_ allowed to delay the execution any longer. This surprised Light, that L would have fought to keep him from being executed. Maybe he felt guilt over killing his 'only friend'.

One of the guards pushed Light to sit in the chair, and undid the handcuffs so that they could strap down his arms. At that moment, Light moved, in some sort of twisted survival instinct that he wasn't in control of. He kicked the guards away from him with a strength that would have made the real L proud, and lunged from the chair, grabbing L and wrapping an arm around his neck, gripping the detective's chin with the other hand.

"I'll snap his neck!" he insisted wildly. He was a genius; he knew how much strain the vertebrae in the neck could take, and at this angle, L could be dead with one sharp pull.

The guards froze with indecision, but the biggest surprise was L himself, speaking up breathily against the grip on his neck.

"It's okay. I'll be fine."

The guards blinked in confusion, and one began, "But, Ryuzaki-san…" But L silenced them with a look, and Light took the opportunity to drag his hostage out of the room and back down the hall. There was an elevator the other way, past his cell, and he immediately jabbed the button when they reached it. It bothered him that L wasn't fighting back, but he figured that the detective had a reason. He always did.

Once they were in the elevator, Light pushed a random floor, but slammed the emergency stop to trap them between floors. He let go of L, who raised a pale hand to his throat before staring at Light.

"I don't understand, Light-kun." he whispered, though the sentiment was probably all for show. L understood everything.

Light glared at him. "How about 'I don't want to die'? Does that help you understand?!" he snapped, nearing hysterics. "Do you really expect me to just sit there and let them kill me, like some obedient pet or something?!"

"Light-kun's actions earned him this fate. Taking L's 'representative' hostage does not improve your situation any."

"I panicked, okay?" the teenager cried, sinking to the floor and putting his head in his hands. "I didn't know what to do, I still don't know what to do or what the goal is here, there's no one to guide me…" To his embarrassment, he was crying, scared beyond comprehending what he was saying to the nightmare-man standing beside him, the one who had ordered his execution.

But L, startling him again, dropped to his knees and embraced the shaking teen. "But Light-kun…" he murmured into the distraught boy's ear. "I am your guide this time, Light-kun."

Laughter began to merge with tears as Light registered what L was saying. "Some help you've been!" he shrieked. "You're trying to lead me to my death, not help me find the goddamn door!"

L's embrace tightened. "I have been trying to help, the best way that I know how. I've tried to be there for you, where normally I would not be allowed. I cannot give you the answer, but I gave you a hint. This challenge is about your fears, Light, and overcoming them. Think."

A hint from the black… Light thought and thought, turning the color over in his mind. Black, _kuroi_, _schwarz, nero, negro, noir…_

_**Noir!**_

It was something that Noir had said to him, when he'd let Light out of Kira's dungeon in the first challenge… Not for now, but for later, what was it…?

_Death is a door_.

He paled, reaching up to wrap his own arms around L. "I have to die… to win the challenge…?"

L nodded against the top of his head. "Yes, Light. The door that you must find on this challenge is death itself. To win, you must confront your fear head on."

"So I…"

"The challenge expected you to fight." L said gently. "It expected you to fight, to run, to escape. And in escaping, be unable to win. The correct answer…"

"Is to go back." Light murmured, voice shaking slightly. "But they'll… I'll be in worse, for taking you like that…"

"I can deal with that. It is my job as your guide." L stood, prying open the circuit board on the elevator's button-panel and fiddling with the wires inside. In moments, the elevator was moving again, and it didn't surprise Light at all that one of L's many skills included hot-wiring an elevator.

xXx

There were armed guards waiting when the doors open, and L was true to his word. Light wasn't sure what the sleuth said to them, but in the end they only huffed and re-handcuffed him to be led back to the other room.

This time, he let them strap him to the chair, let the medical technician place the IV needles in his arms, and let them open the curtains to place him on view for witnesses. There were very few, mostly a couple of important-looking men in suits that Light assumed were Interpol's representatives. No one he knew was there, and he wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad about that fact.

L had stood by him the entire time, and finally reached out to touch his face softly before stepping back. "Be brave, Light."

Light nodded. This was the right answer. It had to be. L was his guide, and Light believed in him.

"Do you have any last words?" the voice on the intercom had no emotion behind it.

Light considered for a moment. He had nothing to say to the Interpol representatives. There was only one person he wanted to say anything to. But he didn't want to speak out loud. Looking over at L, who was worrying the tip of his thumb with his teeth, he mouthed noiselessly in his own language, "_Aishiteru_."

L could lip-read and speak Japanese with no problem. His eyes widened briefly, and then he smiled. Even if it wasn't the real L, it felt so much better to have really said it. There was still the horrible, sick feeling of fear in his stomach, but he could ignore that for the moment.

The intercom said something else, but Light didn't hear it. He knew that the first drug they gave would knock him out, and he wouldn't wake back up. So when he started to drift out of consciousness, there was only a final, panicked twinge of fear, and then everything went black.

xXx

He came back to himself shivering, standing in the doorway of the grey room, tears running down his face. L was standing a few feet in front of him, prepared to ask a question or say something scathing.

Light didn't know what he was about to say.

He didn't care.

He took three steps forward, grabbed the unsuspecting detective, and captured his half-open mouth in a kiss.

* * *

I _liked _writing this chapter. Maybe I'm a sadist at heart, but I honestly enjoyed it.

Yet researching the Death Penalty made me queasy. Go figure. XD

Oh, Light-o... Well, on the plus side, only two more challenges and the finale to go. You'll be home soon if you win, dear. But L will have ridiculous amounts of questions for you now. Hehe...

Enjoy this longer chapter, everyone!  
Li


	14. Interlude

**Interlude**

L stood frozen for a space of three seconds before reacting to the sudden kiss. Light had expected to be violently kicked across the room, but instead found the detective kissing him in return. This lasted for several long moments, before L pulled away, escaping Light's hold to wrap his own arms around himself a safe distance away.

"Light-kun…"

It took about three more seconds for it to occur to Light exactly what he had done, and he immediately backpedaled, holding up his hands and saying quickly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-!"

"We… were friends?" L said, stopping Light almost mid-word, though it sounded more like a question. "Best friends…" Dark eyes lifted to focus on the panicking teenager's face, searching for answers in his expression. "I locked you up as Kira, but I had to let you out. There wasn't any evidence…" He took a step forward. "We fought, but you were my friend…" Touching the fingers of one hand to his lips, he asked quietly, "Is this something else that I do not remember?"

"No, no, I…!" Light tried to think of something to say, but drew a complete and utter blank. His mind locked as a lie tried to force itself past his lips, _No, it doesn't mean anything, I'm just stressed, _but was held back by the truth that he couldn't say either. _Yes, it does. I love you. I fell in love with you and then all-but killed you. Forgive me…_

"If it is not a missing piece of my memory…" L mused, biting on the tip of one finger, "Perhaps it is something that Light-kun didn't wish to tell me?"

Light sighed, defeated by L's profiling skills once again. He nodded sullenly, and the detective walked over. "Something terrible had to happen to cause you to admit something so personal. What was that last challenge?"

Light immediately sank to the floor, the nauseous feeling returning as he thought about what he had just gone through. L dropped down beside him, looking extremely confused. The brunet teen took a deep breath, trying to settle his stomach, and began to explain in a voice barely above a whisper what had happened to him.

It almost seemed to take longer to tell it than to experience it, and Light didn't realize that he was shaking again until L put a hand on his shoulder to still him. "It's okay, Light-kun. Don't say anymore. I understand."

Light's resolve broke, and he was just enough aware of himself to be embarrassed about the fact that he began crying like a child. L didn't say anything, just moved to embrace him. Light had been forced to face his own death, and surely there was no one on earth who could do such a thing without some sort of emotional or psychological impact on them. He wrapped his arms around the detective, tears still falling, and began muttering into his shirt almost inaudibly.

L leaned close to listen, and faintly heard the muffled voice saying, "…you and it's my fault you're like this I'm so sorry it's all my fault…" Light seemed to catch himself, the babble stopping, and L pretended that he hadn't heard anything. He wasn't sure what made this situation Light's fault, but now was not the time to find out, not when the teen was so obviously hurting.

Light finally looked up, his eyes wide, and said breathlessly, "I love you."

L opened his mouth to reply and hesitated. Light seemed to sense his shock, and explained quickly, "I don't know what the next challenge is going to be, and I had to tell you, because if I fail I'll never see you again…" He took a deep breath. "I love you, L."

"I believe you." L replied in a whisper, leaning his head on Light's. It was the best thing Light could have heard, because coming from L it meant so much more than simply repeating the sentiment back. L never believed anything that he said, from the moment the detective had met him. So for L to tell Light that he believed him… It was the deepest form of trust L could place in him.

"Thank you…" Light whispered back, reaching up and pulling the detective down to kiss him again. L yielded, kissing back warmly, and Light mentally smiled at the fact that even though their pretend 'relationship' from before had been forgotten, the time he had taken to teach L how to kiss hadn't been lost.

When he pulled away he felt inexplicably tired, the fatigue from all the challenges finally catching up to him. In the end, both the semi-reformed murderer and detective ended up asleep, just like they used to sleep before everything had gone wrong. L curled up against Light's side, and the teen was finally able to get a good night's sleep, for the first time since this nightmare had begun.

* * *

...Well.

This is an... _embarrassingly_ short chapter. NaNoWriMo ate my writing muse and spit it back out in a mangled mess. (I didn't even win. 12,834 words. Dammit.) When my muse finally bothered to come back to life, it returned with a Kingdom Hearts idea and would not leave me alone about it. (I've been in Kingdom Hearts fangirl mode for months now. Since Days came out.) So this was the best that I could do in a NaNo-dead state. Next chapter will be much better, I promise, since there's only two challenges and a finale left. So I'm going to sincerely apologize for the general _suck_ of this chapter and leave it at that. (I'll probably go work on that Kingdom Hearts thing. Ugh.)

HUGS!  
Li


	15. Ever After

**Ever After**

Light remembered getting up, leaving L asleep in the small bed in the grey room. He remembered going to the door and taking a last look back, reaching up to touch the black stone, still on its cord around his neck, safely hidden under his shirt. He remembered opening the door and walking bravely through, ready to face whatever challenge or torture lay ahead. Thus, waking up in bed was quite a shock. And not just any bed, but the bed in their set of rooms in headquarters. He sat up, looking around in puzzled wonder before his attention was captured by the detective currently asleep on the other side of the bed.

It was exactly how Light had left L back in the 'real world'. He slept peacefully, and Light was hesitant to wake him. Rem's warning of a soulless L still rang true with him. But he bit back his nerves, shaking the detective hesitantly by the shoulder. He had to know what was going on.

L awoke immediately, always a light sleeper, but smiled when he saw Light. "Good morning, Light-kun."

Light fought to keep from gaping at him like a dead fish. "W-what's going on, L? We were in the grey room, and…"

L sat up as well, wrapping his arms around Light from behind. He rested his chin on Light's shoulder, saying soothingly, "You won, Light. It's over. "

"I… don't understand. The door…"

L nuzzled his ear. "That was your last challenge. To have the nerve to step through the door one more time, knowing what you had just had to go through and knowing that there might be something worse on the other side. You passed, and your black stone brought us home."

Light turned to face him, catching L in his arms and hugging him close. "I don't believe it… I don't believe we made it. Everything I had to go through…" He smiled wistfully, musing, "I wonder if they are real people out there somewhere. Noir and Aki and the others who helped me."

"We may never know." L laughed. "But if anyone can find them, we can." He pulled away from Light, getting up to walk to the dresser and pull out a clean shirt. "Watari called earlier, before you awoke, and informed me that he'd given the task force the week off. They might be coming in on-and-off, but we are not required to work. We can just relax."

"You, relax?" Light said with a grin. "The world must be ending!"

L smiled in return. "Being dead has taught me something about enjoying the time I have, especially with you." He changed shirts, wandering back over to where Light still sat in bed and leaning down to press a brief kiss to his lips. "Let's just… enjoy ourselves."

xXx

They ended up watching movies, Light sitting at one end of the couch in the 'living room' area of their little suite, L's head in his lap. Light had found a collection of mystery movies, and they had amused themselves trying to figure out the clues before the movie's hero or each other. They had watched "The Illusionist", which L had somehow come up with the answer to even though there had been no real clues, and "The Prestige". Both were movies about magicians, and in the case of "The Prestige", L had once again come up with the answer first. But that had not been a triumphant moment at all.

"What's wrong, L?" Light asked, glancing down to see L cringe.

"I have figured out the answer." L replied unhappily. "It's not a good answer."

Forty-five minutes of movie later, Light was forced to agree with him. Not a good answer at all.

xXx

They had lunch, and L disappeared into the kitchen to bake something, surprising Light once again. He hadn't known that the detective could cook. He himself proceeded to finish the book that he had been reading before going on his strange quest. It was right where he had left it, sitting on the corner of the coffee table with a scrap of newspaper in it for a bookmark.

It turned out to be a good book, except for the ending. It was one of those endings where the protagonist wakes up and realizes everything was a dream or an illusion or whatever. The ending seemed tacked-on and contrived to Light, but the rest of the story had been okay. He smiled faintly at the smell of something chocolate coming from the kitchen. No matter what books he read, his own story had ended perfectly.

xXx

It was two days before the task force reappeared. Aizawa came up to knock on the door, asking if they were okay, and L had replied easily that they were fine, and would return to work when the week was up, five days from then. Aizawa had hesitated, expressed his relief that L was feeling better, and gone away.

That was also the day that Light noticed the timer. There was a small countdown timer on the screen of the computer in the corner of the living room. It read, at that exact second, 4d12h44m3s, and Light wondered what on earth it was for.

"L? What's this?" he asked, pointing it out to the detective.

L shrugged, coming over to look at it over Light's shoulder. "It is counting down until we have to return to the investigation. Watari left it here, presumably so that we do not take our 'vacation' too far."

"Like you could ever take a vacation too far, you workaholic." Light laughed. "I'm still surprised you wanted to take a week off in the first place."

L blinked, shifting to look up at Light with wide dark eyes. "I think I finally found something more important than work." he said softly, and left it at that.

xXx

Several more police officers came to the door over the course of the next day, offering relief that L was feeling better, and trying to convince them to come downstairs for just a moment to look at a news clip or a piece of potential evidence. But L was adamant; they were not going to do any investigating until their vacation was over. And vacation was not over until the timer said so. The task force was persistent, but all of them knew that L was singularly the most stubborn person that they had ever met.

"What are we going to do, though?" Light asked. They were sitting on the couch, an unfinished chess game sitting on the coffee table in front of them. Light had called a time-out, needing a few minutes to rethink his strategy, but had gotten distracted since then.

"About what?" L hummed curiously. "There isn't a way to save your knight at this point; either my rook or my bishop will take it."

"Not the chess." Light grumbled. "The task force. How do we tell them that I'm Kira? Or do we just lie? We're going to have to go back and begin investigating again at some point, but there's nothing left to find. It was me."

L sighed. "There isn't much that we can do, Light-kun. Their faith in both you and I will be obliterated if we tell them the truth, because I refuse to see you sent to an execution chamber. They will see it as a betrayal." He thought for a moment, then said, "If we could set up one more criminal to die, and frame that person as Kira…"

"What about you?" Light shifted, as L slouched against his shoulder. "Can you live with yourself, knowing that you framed someone else to get me off the hook? Can you live with me, knowing that I killed over a thousand people?"

L looked up at him, and said with complete seriousness, "I forgive you for Kira."

Light felt his blood turn to ice. "What did you say?"

"I said 'I forgive you'." L blinked, puzzled, as Light stiffened. "What's wrong, Light-kun?"

Light pushed L off of him, getting up. "You told me that the last door in the grey room was it, and the black stone brought us home." he said sharply. "Right?"

L nodded. "Light, I don't understand …"

"I never told L about the black stone. And L might love me in return, and he might not, but he would _never_ simply forgive me for being Kira."

There was a long silence between them, and then L stood up as well, hair obscuring his eyes. His voice was low, and had a near-hysterical quality to it that Light had never heard before. It was almost frightening. "But isn't this what you want, Light-kun? You want everything to be okay again; you would rather forget that Kira ever happened. And you want me to forgive you. More than anything else, you want me to forgive you for sending my soul away!" The illusory detective was shouting, now.

"Of course I do!" Light shouted in return. "But I know it won't be that easy!"

"It could be. All you have to do is stay here. Stay until the timer runs out, and your soul can serve the Labyrinth too. Think, Light! An eternal dream, of whatever you want!" L cried.

Light hesitated. "Where is my guide? If we hadn't had that conversation, I wouldn't have realized anything was off."

"I'm your guide!" L yelled. "Beyond Birthday told you, we exist knowing that the challenges are illusion, but helping you or hindering you was our choice! Beyond tried to lead you to eternity within the Labyrinth, and I chose to do the same!"

Light took a step back, thinking quickly. He had been in every room in the suite in the past three or four days, so the only option left was the place that L was determined that they not go. Through the door to the rest of the building. He hesitated for a few seconds, then lunged past L, running for the front door. But he slowed as he realized that L was not chasing him, simply standing in the abandoned living room, melancholy.

"I am your guide." he said. "To help or to hurt. It is your choice, to stay here and live your ideal dream, or to move on. I will not try to stop you."

He looked so much like L, depressed and hurt that Light wasn't going to stay, and it took every ounce of willpower the teenager had to turn away. "I can't stay here and live a lie. I want _my_ L, even if he hates me for what I've done." He opened the door and stepped through, the last thing he heard being the illusion saying, "_I love you_." But it wasn't real. The L who stood across the grey room from him was real. The L who walked over, opened his mouth, and then hesitated.

The L who whispered, "We were… in a relationship. Light-kun… Why didn't you tell me?"

"You had to remember on your own." Light replied. "But… I do love you. I swear."

"I believe you." L replied, again, and Light embraced him, feeling tears welling in his eyes. This was why he had turned down the fairytale illusion. Nothing was better than the real thing.

* * *

I neglected this for a month. (bows head in shame) This chapter was hard, and my writing muse still hasn't completely recovered for this story. All that's left is the final challenge and the conclusion, and that needs extra planning and note-taking. I don't know when exactly the next chapter will be finished, but I promise I won't leave this for a month ever again. I'm renewing my vow to never leave a story unfinished except in very special circumstances.

How many of you thought that it was seriously the end, there, for a minute? I know I got someone! XD

Hugs!  
Li


	16. Angels and Demons

**Angels and Demons**

"This is it…" Light whispered, staring at the door. It had to be the last one. There was only one thing left that was missing from L's memory, and that was the night that Light had betrayed him. Whatever waited behind this door, it was the last thing that he would have to face. After that… He only had to face L.

L was standing at his side, frowning at the door. "I wish that I could help you, Light-kun." he said softly. "I don't know what is waiting past there, but it cannot be anything good."

Light glanced at him. "I know, L. But I have to do this. I'll get the rest of your memory back, and we'll go home." He hugged the detective tightly, knowing it might be his last chance. L might hate him when he returned. He felt slim arms wrap around him in return, and it was enough. All of this had been worth it, to put L back the way he was supposed to be. "I'll be okay. I promise."

L stepped away, nodding. "I'll be waiting."

Light took a deep breath, turning back to the door and opening it. Without fear, he stepped through, ready to handle whatever the Labyrinth of Souls could throw at him.

xXx

It was nothing but dark.

Light could see himself just fine, but everything around him was an infinite black that seemed to suck up all illumination, leaving nothing. He took a step, finding that the "ground" was at least solid, and looked around. Was this what Mu, Nothingness, felt like?

Something like a spotlight illuminated, and a figure came into view. A young man, maybe Light's age or a few years older, with thick black hair, was kneeling on the ground. Light saw that his arms were pulled painfully up behind him, linked to chains that disappeared somewhere overhead. His eyes were shut, lines indicating pain etched around them.

"Teil Miura." The voice was quiet, coming from all around, and Light couldn't figure out where it was coming from. But he did see a second illuminated figure, this one a girl, with long dark hair. Her eyes were open, dark, expressive and brown and staring right at Light. She was bound hand and foot with rough ropes, lying on her side.

"Emi Tachikawa." the voice supplied helpfully. A third figure appeared, another girl, brunette hair falling in waves down her back. Her hands were cuffed, suspending her standing on her tiptoes. Her eyes, like Teil's, were shut.

"Mizuki Kobayashi."

The fourth figure was a child, no more than twelve or thirteen, with smooth, straight hair and large eyes. He was chained, hands and feet shackled, and was sitting miserably in the midst of the blackness. The voice intoned, "Taro Kagami."

The fifth figure, the last, was a black-haired girl. It blended with the blackness around them, almost invisible. She appeared to be sleeping, though there was a collar around her neck, attached by a chain to somewhere above. "Himeko Inoue." the voice concluded.

Light was left staring at these prisoners, these bound people, wondering what this had to do with his challenge. Was he supposed to help them, free them? He was debating going to Himeko, the nearest, and trying to free her, when another person caught his eye. This person walked free, sauntering towards Light, oozing confidence with every step. Light's breath caught as he realized that the challenge was throwing him yet another illusion of L. But he knew better this time. It wasn't real.

This L was wearing a black turtleneck instead of his usual baggy white shirt. He stepped close to Light, kissing him chastely on the mouth before whispering poisonously, "_Kira_."

Light flinched, stepping back, and the L laughed. "What? You do not want to hear the name of the god you nearly became? Coward. I'm sure you've made some sort of vow. You'll never kill again? Am I right?" Light didn't reply, and L continued, "It's too bad if you did. This challenge is special." He swept an arm around, indicating the bound prisoners. "Each of these people is a murderer." he declared. "They killed someone, each of them did. You, Light, _Kira_… have to kill one. One of these five murderers. Not choosing is not an option; or you will stay here for eternity. One of these people must die by your hand to end the challenge. This is the last one the Labyrinth will give you, you know. All that will be left are the challenges you yourself created."

Light gaped at him in horror. He had to kill someone to escape? What kind of horrible challenge was this? He took a step back, noticing that this L had no whites in his eyes. They were a solid, empty, shiny black.

L saw the look, and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll tell you what they did, so you can judge better." He indicated the five prisoners. "Taro Kagami killed his best friend. His father was a police officer, and there was a gun in the house. Taro didn't know it was loaded. He was showing it to his friend when it went off. It was a fatal wound. He killed his friend." L moved away from Light, walking past Taro and to the next spotlight in the circle. "Teil Miura was driving drunk, and hit another car on the highway underpass in Shibuya. The driver of the other car spun out of control and crashed into the concrete wall, where the car burst into flames. The other driver died before help could come.

"Mizuki Kobayashi did not kill anyone directly. Her father had a connection to the Yakuza, and she got several bullies and other terrible people at her college killed in 'terrible accidents'. She was never implicated in these murders, though she was the source." L continued, speaking impassively, as if these people's crimes meant nothing to him. "Emi Tachikawa shot her abusive boyfriend one night after he attempted to beat her. She retrieved the gun from the dresser and fired three times. He died before police arrived. Finally, Himeko Inoue got into a fight with her college roommate. They were on the third floor of the college library, and Himeko shoved her roommate hard. The other girl fell over the balcony railing where you could look down onto the first floor. She broke her neck and died on impact." L grinned wickedly, his eyes glinting a horrific, empty black. "So, Light Yagami… Who do you choose? Which of these murderers deserves to die?"

Light stared around the circle, his thoughts spiraling. What could he do? He didn't want to kill anyone else. He didn't want to be Kira, the thing that L hated, anymore. But he wasn't going to be able to escape this challenge if he didn't. He looked at each bound person in turn, wondering how you decided, out of a group of people condemned for the same crime, which _one_ deserved death. He sank down to sit cross-legged, thinking about what L had said about each of them. There had to be a difference, something that set one apart from the others. If he could find that…

xXx

He sat for a long time, lost in his thoughts and reasoning. L waited off to the side, just watching him, seemingly unworried by the wait. It was, quite possibly, the hardest decision he had ever had to make. He could kill just any of them, to save himself and L. But that would make him no better than the demon that he sought to escape. Kira killed criminals indiscriminately, and that was not what Light wanted to be anymore. He wanted to make a decision for a good reason, not just because he had to save himself.

Light finally climbed to his feet, saying only, "I decided."

L grinned. He walked over, pulling from nowhere a familiar black notebook. He opened it to a clean page and pulled out a pen to offer to Light. "Then write your choice."

Light took the pen, setting it hesitantly to the paper before beginning to write. It was the work of a moment, and when he was finished, the page read, "Mizuki Kobayashi."

The spotlights went out, leaving him blind to his surroundings again, and he didn't even know if it had truly been a Death Note he had written on. All that was left, after, was L, watching him with those eerie eyes. The illusory detective opened his mouth and asked, to Light's great surprise, "Why did you choose Mizuki?"

Light hesitated. "…Why do you want to know?"

"Curiosity." the L copy replied. "I'm interested to know whether you won or not."

"What do you mean?!" Light demanded. "You said that I just had to kill someone, and this was over! You didn't say I had to choose right!"

"There isn't a right or wrong answer." the demon-L laughed. "It just changes how you end up. It is an ending, either way."

Light growled. "I picked Mizuki because she's the only one to have someone killed on purpose. All the others were accidents or self-defense. No matter if she was killing bullies or not, that doesn't make it right. It just shows that she has the willpower to choose to take a human life. Someone like that… is worse than the others."

L raised both eyebrows. Light wondered what had surprised the other so, and realized that it must have been the reason he'd been given. L smiled faintly, though it still looked faintly creepy because of his soulless eyes. "… You chose well, Light. Please, go." He stepped aside, and Light saw a single door suspended in the blackness. He blinked at L, who gestured to the door, before stepping forward and opening it. The grey room waited beyond, and Light breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure what would have happened if he had picked anyone else, and decided that he didn't really want to know. He stepped through the door, and it swung closed behind him. The Trial was over.

He had won.

He looked up then, his eyes moving immediately to focus on the detective standing beside the end of the bed. L was staring at the floor, his hair shadowing his eyes, and Light's good mood immediately fell. L had remembered, he had remembered everything. Light had tried to kill him, and it was all over now. There were no more games, no more charades and no more lies. This was the moment of truth.

"L…" he whispered, taking a step forward. L didn't look up, and Light continued to advance. "L, please, you have to let me explain."

L looked up to meet his eyes, then, and they were so filled with betrayal and hurt that Light was frozen in his tracks. L didn't say anything. He simply turned on his heel, storming to the other door and throwing it open, vanishing through. Light lunged forward with a cry, calling desperately, "L!" He didn't even think before going after him, knowing that it didn't matter. He had come so far… Even if L hated him, he was going to take the detective home. If nothing else, he owed him that. And he loved L Lawliet. He wasn't going to leave him behind now.

* * *

I do not own the peop- oh, wait. Ya, I do. XD Suffice to say that the five murderers here are different from their previous incarnations, for the sake of story coherence. :P

Well... not much that I can say here. The Labyrinth has no more challenges for Light. The only one left, he created himself. Hope you guys enjoyed!

Li


	17. Behind the Mask

**Behind the Mask**

"L!"

Light had dashed through the door after the sleuth without thinking, knowing that he couldn't let L slip through his fingers now. If there were no more challenges, what could possibly be past the door? It didn't really matter. Light was going through, whether L wanted him to follow or not.

The first thing that he was aware of was that his clothes had changed. He was now dressed in black dress pants and a pressed white shirt, with a crimson coat edged in gold that went down to almost his knees. He paused a moment to look at the formal attire, wondering what on earth being dressed up had to do with anything, and then looked around the room warily.

It was a huge ballroom. People in every color, in sweeping coats like Light's, women wearing elegant ball gowns… It was some sort of formal dance. And, looking at everyone, he realized they were all wearing masks. A masquerade ball. But he didn't have a mask. What did it all mean?

There was a singer on a raised stage at the other end of the room. Light could just hear the words over the murmur of people talking. The singer was smiling, declaring to the room:

"_There's a face that we wear, in the cold light of day,  
__It's Society's mask, it's Society's way,  
__And the truth is: that it's all a façade!"_

Light began to push through the crowd, searching for a familiar raven-haired head, endless black-magic eyes, or anything to show him where his love had gone.

"_There's a face that we hide till the nighttime appears,  
__And what's hiding inside, behind all of our fears,  
__Is our true self, locked inside the façade!_"

He was grabbed by both hands and spun around, pulled into the whirling dance around the room. The two who held his hands wore masks that looked like children, a blond boy he didn't know, and the red-head, Matt, from the illusion of Wammy's. The blond, whom Light assumed through association with Matt was the elusive Mello, removed the mask of the childish face, revealing him for what he was: a young man Light's age, with a horrible scar on the left side of his face. Matt removed the mask of his younger face, revealing the older red-head with goggles on his head and a cigarette in his mouth. Light stared at them as he was pulled in a circle, both boys singing along with the song, "_That's how our little game is played… Livin' like a masquerade!_"

Light pulled away from them, pushing through the crowd. He wasn't sure what he was seeing, past, present, or future incarnations of the boys, but he didn't really care to find out. He thought he saw L, elbowing through the crowd to reach the detective's side, only to realize it was only a mask that looked like L. The figure lifted the mask away, and Near's face, still childish despite being as old as Light, became visible to smile crookedly at him.

"_What you see is not what you get, 'cause man's a master of deceit!_" Near sang, smiling as Light pushed away from him. He found himself surrounded, a blur of faces that he recognized from all of his many challenges. Beyond Birthday shoved him hard, asking loudly, "You didn't think you were a murderer?"

"_Hypocrites! Hypocrites! It's all a façade!_" the crowd sang with the one still on stage. Light was almost ready to resign himself to never finding L, to being trapped in this psychotic dance forever, when a single voice rose over the din, clear and loud and so familiar…

"_Man is not one but two, he is evil and good, and he walks the fine line we'd all cross if we could!_" It was a defending sort of lyric, at the end. "_What's behind the façade? Look behind the façade!_"

The crowd parted, returning to their dance as if nothing had happened. Light got his bearings, looking up at the suddenly-docile dancers, and his eyes focused on the only figure not moving, in the center of the room.

He gasped softly. L looked… stunning, for lack of a better word. He was dressed similarly to Light, in white dress pants and a white shirt, slightly looser to account for his own taste in clothes. His coat was a royal blue, edged in silver, and a silver mask covered the upper half of his face. Light walked up to him slowly, uncertain if L would walk away again, but the detective didn't move.

"L, please…" Light whispered, desperately. "Please, listen…"

"You killed me, Light-kun. You banished my soul to the Shinigami realm." L replied, not making eye contact. "You are Kira."

"You have to understand! I didn't realize…" He paused when L looked up at him questioningly, and finished quietly, "I didn't realize that I had actually fallen in love with you."

L turned away, tucking his hands into the pockets of his coat. "How can I believe Kira? The same Kira who, now I know for absolute certain, has done nothing but lie to me since the day that we met? How can I trust you, Light-kun?"

"I told you the truth in the grey room." Light said. "I told you that your memories would return, and they did. I kept going, knowing that you would eventually remember everything. I came to get you, something that I didn't have to do in the first place, if I wanted you dead." He gripped L's shoulder, turning the masked detective around to face him. "I came for you, because I realized how much I love you. I came to take you home. Please, god, L… Don't turn me away now. I'm not asking you to forgive me. Just let me take you home."

L's dark eyes glinted from behind the silver mask. Slowly, he reached up and pulled it from his face, revealing his whole expression. Light's breath caught in his throat as he waited to see what L would say.

L sighed quietly. "Yagami Light… I cannot forgive you for what you have done." He hesitated, then continued, "But you are also my first friend, and the first person that I truly felt something for. So I… for the moment, at least… I will let it go."

Light gaped at him. He reacted almost immediately, wrapping L in his arms and kissing the detective firmly on the mouth. To his great joy, L kissed him in return, and Light reached for the necklace he still wore. He gripped the black stone tightly, his other arm firmly around L, and focused with all his being on bringing them back to the living world.

The world whirled into a blur of color around them, and Light felt L's fingers twist into his shirt, obviously not understanding what was happening. Light kept his eyes open as long as he could, watching the spiraling colors until it nearly made him sick. He finally shut his eyes, and felt himself falling away. There was a moment of panic when he felt his grip on L slacken, but there was nothing he could do. Awareness faded away, and he knew no more.

xXx

When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a blank white ceiling.

He was in bed, in his and L's room at headquarters. He sat up, startled, looking around frantically. L was asleep next to him, once again the same as he had left everything in the real world. But he couldn't trust it. He couldn't trust that it was real. After all, it had given him a challenge that looked like a perfect reality once. He wasn't going to let it fool him this time.

L stirred at the movement, opening black eyes to stare at Light. He too sat up, looking around. "What day is it? How long were we gone?" He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, wincing. It hurt, waking up and trying to move after being unconscious for that long.

Light was still gazing around the room with wide eyes. How did he tell? How did he know it wasn't a trick? The computer didn't have a timer on it. L knew about the stone now; he had seen it just before they left the masquerade. What could he do…?

"Light, what's the matter?" L asked worriedly. Light turned to him suddenly, grabbing him by the shoulders to hold him in place.

"Do you forgive me for Kira?!" he demanded wildly.

L's eyes were impossibly wide, wider even than usual, completely baffled by the question. "Of course not. Kira… Kira was a demon. I acknowledge that you are not him anymore, but you were once, and your actions will not just go away."

To L's continued astonishment, Light began to laugh with relief. The teenager tugged the completely confused detective into a tight hug, saying between bursts of laughter, "This is real! Oh, god, we made it. We made it out…" L hugged him in return, reaching one hand up to rest his fingertips on the black stone.

"What is this?" Ever curious.

Light sat back, pulling the cord over his head and handing it to L. "Ryuk gave it to me. It was our ticket out of the Labyrinth. I doubt it has any power now. He said it would only work once. I suppose… now it's just a keepsake." He stared down at the sheets for a second, unwilling to bring up the obvious topic. Instead, he said quietly, "Why was the last illusion a masquerade ball?"

L stared at his reflection in the stone. "Possibly… because all we have done our entire lives is hide behind masks. I hide from the world behind a computer screen to keep myself safe. Mello told me once that it was my way of protecting myself, since I do not trust anyone to keep me safe outside my own power. And you… you hid behind the mask of the perfect son, the perfect student, when in reality you were bored with everything. Bored enough to be tempted by the Death Note, which preyed on both the purity and the darkness in your soul."

"But I didn't have a mask. I was the only one." Light pointed out.

L smiled softly, rationalizing, "By that point… You had shed the mask of Kira. You had exposed yourself, every part of yourself, to complete the trials. There was nothing left for you to hide behind." He looked up to meet Light's eyes. "You… risked everything, didn't you?"

Light nodded. "It was worth it. I realize that now. You… You were always more important than Kira, somehow. I think I ended up caring more about continuing the games with you than actually being Kira, sometimes." He gazed at the detective's expression, searching for something in the reflective eyes, and murmured quietly, "I love you."

L didn't falter or look away. Just as he had in the grey room, he held Light's gaze, saying clearly, "I believe you, Light. And… I love you, too."

It was the best thing he could have said.

_Look, we're all just people. Can you hear the voice?  
__Find the one who'll guide you to the limits of your choice.  
__And if you're in the eye of storm, just think of the lonely dove.  
__**The experience of survival is the key to the gravity of love…**_

* * *

I was going to hold onto this for a while longer, but I decided not to. ^.^ This... this is it, people. There's a very short epilogue in the works, so this story is just about complete.

I love masquerade balls so very, very much, and with the parallels it presented in terms of both Kira and L, the temptation was just too much. XD The song used during the masquerade is "Facade" from Jekyll and Hyde. The song at the very end, there, is "Gravity of Love" by Enigma.

To whoever it was who added this story to the Fanfic Recommendation page on TVTropes... Thank you. I swear to all higher powers out there, finding that seriously made my year, and it's only January. :D A thousand times thank you!

The end is in sight!  
Li


	18. Final Challenges and Bright Futures

**Epilogue: Final Challenges and Bright Futures**

"I don't want to."

"Light…"

"You weren't there! He found out I was Kira and he tried to _shoot me_! He didn't want to hear anything I had to say! He _knocked you unconscious for trying to stop him_!!!"

"Light, the Trial of Souls was meant to prey on your nightmares. I doubt reality follows it's machinations exactly."

Light glared at the detective, who stared back with a cool, impassive look on his face. Light broke eye contact first, throwing out sharply, knowing it was unfair, "Beyond Birthday really _didn't_ try to carve you up, then? You _don't_ have scars all over your back?"

"From what you have explained…" L said rationally. "The challenges involving my life were taken from my memories, naturally of things that have already happened. Whereas yours preyed on your fears of what _would_ happen."

"Or my hopes and desires…" Light murmured, remembering the fairytale challenge the Trial had thrown him into. The hardest one to leave.

L nodded, walking over to kiss him lightly on the cheek. "Precisely. Which is why there is no basis in reality for you to be afraid of facing your father. The task force cannot object to what plan we have come up with. Being under permanent house arrest with me is much preferable to the Death Penalty. I doubt that any of them truly want to see you killed." He smiled. "Telling them… simply think of it as your final challenge, Light. The last thing you have to face to be free of the Death Note."

Light nodded, reaching to grip the detective's hand. L returned the grip, starting to walk towards the door, but paused when Light didn't immediately follow. "What's wrong?"

"What were you going to say?" Light asked. L frowned in confusion, and Light continued, "You were telling me, right before Rem appeared and everything went wrong… You were telling me that I should just admit that I was Kira. You started to say 'I would', and then never got to finish. You would what, Lawliet?"

L stiffened at the use of his real name, in reflex, but relaxed a moment later. "_I would do my best… to protect you._" he whispered. "It was… not something that I liked to think. I have an obligation, as L and as a detective, to see you brought to justice. But I cared about you, Light, more than I wanted to admit to myself, and… I still do. I have the right to be selfish, just this once." He met Light's eyes, something determined flickering in his own ebony orbs. "Interpol can't have you."

Light smiled broadly, pulling L close by his captured hand to kiss him properly. "Well, then…" he said quietly, when they pulled apart. "I suppose my father can't have me either. I'm yours." He squeezed L's hand as the sleuth grinned in return, and hand-in-hand, they walked from the room to face the task force.

* * *

Happy January 28, 2010! Today, besides being the end of this particular story, is the actual real-time date of the end of Death Note! (I wanted to post at one, when Near met Light at the warehouse, but I was taking exams at the time. Stupid school.) Hooray!

With this, I have to tell you all that I am leaving for the Kingdom Hearts section for a while. I have an idea for a sequel to this, but it needs a lot of work to be coherent enough to publish. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed this story, and it's been a blast!

For all my readers, love and hugs,  
Li


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